History Main / IngestingKnowledge

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' parodies and subverts this in ''Teach Me, Ms. Litchi! Reloaded''. [[BadassBookworm Tsubaki]] suggests this trope as a shortcut to reconstituting [[{{Ditz}} Taokaka's]] intellect from scratch, and offers up a dictionary for it. [[OnlySaneMan Makoto]] is not amused at the obvious results.

This however only applies to non-organic knowledge sources. If a character learns by ingesting {{Brain|Food}}s, that is simply CannibalismSuperpower, which not only is frowned upon by connaissance connoisseurs, it's also considerably more messy.

* ''WebVideo/AdventureIsNigh'': Exiled prophet Latavia Ticklepuss dealt with the pain of banishment by creating the creature Oob, a thing somewhere between a CuteSlimeMook and DemBones, with the power to eat memories. He sends Oob out to collect happy memories from people and transfer them to himself, now fused with the Prime Oob (a decidedly less cute enormous mass of slime with multiple skeletons floating in it, stuck to his back).

* ''Literature/{{Firmin}}'' by Sam Savage is a book about a rat {{uplifted|Animal}} this way.
* In the novel ''Literature/ProfessorMmaasLecture'', the protagonists -- termites -- "read" human writing by eating the paper and remembering where they can taste the ink, then reciting the writing from memory. They also eat other thermites' associative substance (brains) to aquire their memories.
* Samsonite is a chemical invented by Samson Fandorin, an ancestor of Literature/ErastFandorin in Boris Akunun's book "Quest". Drinking it lets the user hear a message from Fandorin. It can also contain general knowledge (in the novel, Russian language and culture).
* In ''Literature/TheDragonKnight'', this is how Magickians use the Encyclopedia Necromantick BookOfShadows.

* In Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Kraken'', one villain needed to absorb the information in a book (printed in kraken ink) right now. And the villain was also made of ink. [[spoiler: He forced the ink out of the book and mixed himself with the ink. Alas, it turns out kraken ink can remember its prior identity.]]

* In Creator/LloydAlexander's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' story "The Foundling" Dallben is cooking something when it splashes on his hand. Popping the hand to his mouth means it confers knowledge on him.

* Happens in the Italian children's book ''Atomino''. The protagonist, a [[AnimateInanimateObject living atom]] that has been [[ItMakesSenseInContext recently enlarged to human size]] and is therefore completely ignorant of human culture, is told that he needs to get in the library and "devour books" if he wants to learn. He [[LiteralMinded takes the advice literally]] and it actually works. Unfortunately, he ate too much in a single sitting and he get indigestion -- when he takes an antacid, his new knowledge goes away as well.
* ''The Incredible Book Eating Boy'' by Oliver Jeffers revolves around a boy named Henry who gains knowledge through literally eating books. However, his plans on becoming the smartest boy in the world are derailed when he discovers the hard way there's a limit on how much knowledge he can ingest.

* The entire premise of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' is that Chuck accidentally absorbs all knowledge of the CIA and NSA in a single night, and has flashes of said knowledge whenever he sees something related to them.

* An ''Series/AmazingStories'' episode has a strange event cause an old janitor at a school suddenly gain the ability to absorb knowledge by being in a classroom, especially if something is written on the board. At the end, he runs into the middle of a football field at night. A flying saucer arrives and beams all that knowledge from him and leaves.
* ''Series/LockeAndKey2020'': Physical objects can be stored in people's heads with the Head Key; if this is done with books, the person will know everything that is written in the book without having to read it. Tyler takes advantage of this to do well at school and impress a girl.

* Odin of Myth/NorseMythology does this.
* Sigurd was innocently roasting the dragon's heart for his companion when some blood splattered on his hand. Then he heard birds talking about how his companion intended to murder him.

'''Makoto:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Yeah. I kinda suspected as much.]]

* Your character in ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' used stat-enhancing books pretty much exactly like this until an update altered the ability.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', it takes a normal person years of training in order to be able to use the [[MakeMeWannaShout Thu'um]]. [[PlayerCharacter The]] [[TheChosenOne Dragonborn]], on the other hand, can become an InstantExpert by killing a dragon and [[YourSoulIsMine devouring its soul]], transferring the dragon's knowledge of the Thu'um into him/herself. It's possible to share this knowledge willingly as well, it's just that [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the dragons aren't willing]].

* Carbosilicate amorphs in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' evolved from data storage systems. They share memories by writing a copy into chosen piece of body, then exchanging and absorbing these.

* One side comic of ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' showed that the demon judge was hatched and ate a library's worth of law books just before the trial, [[spoiler: and the judges are then killed after the trial to maintain objectivity.]]

* Raven from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''. In one episode a mage teaches her an ability to absorb (not literally) many books at the same time, as it's faster than reading them.
* One Polish children's show from the 1980s had this in a song about bookworms.

* ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'': the title character is a dog {{uplifted|Animal}} this way by regularly eating alphabet soup. One episode leaves her stuck speaking Spanish because she ate a special Mexican flavor version. It becomes a plot of another episode where this stops working altogether because the company changed the recipe. And in yet another episode, the recurring villain who is always trying to dognap Martha covertly switches out her soup with the Polish version and then tries to claim that Martha is his dog from the old country.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'': Attempted by Mung Daal on Chowder. He tries to cram a stack of books in his head instead of getting him to study! Then he gives him a dish that makes Chowder super smart, so smart that he is able to [[NoFourthWall break the 4th wall]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'': One episode has [[FatBestFriend Toby]] drink a potion called Elix-Lore, that causes words to fly off of books and into his mouth gaining its knowledge. He somewhat [[DrunkWithPower loses control]] and eats an entire library, he almost finds the information he was looking for but the previous info [[MySkullRunnethOver was too much]] and he uncontrollably vomits it out.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' where an episode states that Richard ate Gumball and Darwin's homework to be smart.

* In ''Manga/Brave10'', Rokuro has a MagicalEye that can absorb letters from a page and store the information inside it. With it he can also access people's memories and strip information from them. Naturally, it's so valuable a tool [[spoiler:TheMole tries to steal it and he has to [[EyeScream stab it out]] to protect all that knowledge.]]

This however only applies to non-organic knowledge sources. If a character learns by ingesting {{Brain|Food}}s, that is simply CannibalismSuperpower, which not only is frowned upon by [[JustForPun connaissance connoisseurs]], it's also considerably more messy.

* Your character in ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' used stat-enhancing books pretty much exactly like this until an update altered the ability.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', it takes a normal person years of training in order to be able to use the [[MakeMeWannaShout Thu'um]]. [[PlayerCharacter The]] [[TheChosenOne Dragonborn]], on the other hand, can become an InstantExpert by killing a dragon and [[YourSoulIsMine devouring its soul]], transferring the dragon's knowledge of the Thu'um into him/herself. It's possible to share this knowledge willingly as well, it's just that [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the dragons aren't willing]].

* ''LightNovel/BookGirl'': It's not used for information particularly (she mostly eats fiction), but the title character experiences books by eating them.

* ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'': the title character is a dog {{uplifted|Animal}} this way by regularly eating alphabet soup. One episode leaves her stuck speaking Spanish because she ate a special Mexican flavor version. It becomes a plot of another episode where this stops working altogether because the company changed the recipe.

** Happens in a vision in the book of Jeremiah.

* On the first ''Anime/FullMetalAlchemist'' anime, Scar somehow is able to absorb some of the investigations made by the Elric brothers related to the Laboratory Five.

* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/DreadCompanion'', eating the fruit of the land confers knowledge of it -- also a BalefulPolymorph into creatures of it.