History TakeOurWordForIt / Literature

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'': The Minotaur is never depicted, only described in terms of the fear it strikes in people contemplating it. There's one point [[spoiler:when it might be reaching out of the wall to grab the dead body of Holloway Roberts]], or maybe that was a glitch in the dying video camera.

** ''Literature/BerenAndLuthien'': Beren's trip through the Mountains of Terror, home to giant spider-like abominations, where none had ever gone and lived to tell the tale. Nobody knows how he survived because Beren -the Man who laughed at being ordered to sneak into the Dark Lord's fortress- was too traumatized to talk about it.

** And in ''Literature/TheLastHero'' the bard writes the most beautiful, most moving heroic saga ever. And then claims to be able to improve it even further. For obvious reasons, we never actually get to know what it sounds like or what the words are, though it might be power metal. We do know what it's ''about'' at least. At least there's a picture of him singing it that looks totally credible.

%%* The self-published and somewhat infamous ''Literature/FelsicCurrent'' relies entirely too heavily upon this trope, much to the detriment of the story.

* Creator/HPLovecraft and other contributors to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos wrote of [[TomeOfEldritchLore fictional books]], such as the ''Necronomicon'', which [[BrownNote drive men mad]] upon reading them; we, of course, are "spared" any more exposure to their contents than a few short excerpts and quotations.

* In the original "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast", the Beast was not described so the reader would think of him as whatever scared them most. Of course, when the story was adapted to film and television, it became necessary to show him.
* Appears a number of times in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels.

* Much like [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian monsters]], the [[color:red:Minotaur]] in ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' is never depicted, only described in terms of the fear it strikes in people contemplating it. There's one point [[spoiler:when it might be reaching out of the wall to grab the dead body of Holloway Roberts]], or maybe that was a glitch in the dying video camera.
* In a probable ShoutOut to Lovecraft, who he'd apparently read and liked, Tolkien invoked this trope to (refrain from) describing Gandalf's trip BeneathTheEarth, in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
-->'''Gandalf:''' Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, '''[[EldritchAbomination the world is gnawed by nameless things]].''' Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than [[FallenAngel he.]] Now I have walked there, '''but I will bring no report to darken the light of day.'''
** (Keep in mind, Sauron is older than the entire universe, and he helped build it.)
** Beren's trip through the Mountains of Terror, Ungoliant's old lair, in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', where [[ForbiddenZone none had ever gone]] and [[EldritchLocation lived to tell the tale]]. Possibly due to Tolkien's own fear of spiders.
** Gollum's ordeal in Mordor at the hands of Sauron's torturers ... we never find out exactly what they did to him, just that he is afraid to the point of psychosis of entering Mordor again.
** The origin story of the orcs ... it's difficult to put in words what an elf would have to go through to fall that far.
** The wars between the Valar and Morgoth are skimmed over, mostly because the sheer scale of the forces involved are impossible to visualise.
* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', Bilbo bonks his head at the beginning of the Battle of Five Armies (the climax of the book) and misses the whole darn thing. This is convenient for the [[WesternAnimation/TheHobbit animated version]], which didn't have the budget for a full-scale battle scene.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Pippin misses a battle and has to be told about it by his comrades when he wakes up.
* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's short story "Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado", the narrator Montresor complains of "a thousand injuries" inflicted on him by Fortunato before sealing him in a catacomb to starve to death. Since Fortunato treats Montresor as a friend, and Montresor's behavior is rather unbalanced, it's implied that the injuries were [[MinorInjuryOverreaction either trivial or completely imagined]].
* Similarly, in Poe's "Literature/ThePitAndThePendulum", we never see what's actually in the pit.
* [[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/ This blog]] deconstructs the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' novels page-by-page, repeatedly pointing out where the authors mention huge events (like the Rapture and attempted Nuclear War) with extremely little detail.

* In ''Literature/ItsAGoodLife,'' before burying "bad man" Dan Hollis in the cornfield, Anthony mentally transforms him into "something like nothing anyone would have believed possible." This disturbing event is not further described except through the horrified reactions of other characters (who can only say that what happened was a ''good'' thing), though its adaptation in ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' depicts the transformed Dan as a jack-in-the-box and has Anthony call it one.

-->It is the equivalent of showing slides of your visit to Machu Picchu, in which you stand in the foreground of each shot, smiling and gesturing at Machu Picchu but also blocking Machu Picchu from view. [[BadWritingIndex Your reader is not sharing your experience.]] Your reader is thinking, "What the hell is that behind him? It looks like it might be Machu Picchu. Or maybe a [=McDonald=]'s."

** The Stick and Bucket Dance from ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'' is supposedly not only suggestive (performing it with women present can lead to charges of "sexual morrisment") but dangerous: "We are ''not'' doing the Stick and Bucket Dance! [[NoodleIncident I still get twinges in my knee]]!"
** In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', Nobby Nobbs tells off-color jokes to a bevy of women, who are rolling on the floor laughing. Although we get a few of the general ideas as being rather famous real-world jokes (like the one about the "small man and the piano"), we [[OrphanedPunchline only get the punchline]] for the one Nobbs is telling when we come on the scene.
** And in ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' the bard writes the most beautiful, most moving heroic saga ever. And then claims to be able to improve it even further. For obvious reasons, we never actually get to know what it sounds like or what the words are, though it might be power metal. We do know what it's ''about'' at least. At least there's a picture of him singing it that looks totally credible.
** We hear bits and pieces of it, but never the entirety of what Granny Weatherwax refers to as "that song" -- "The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered at All". This has, of course, led to the fandom coming up with their own versions of it. The animated adaption of ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'' also gives us a stanza, perhaps the opening lines, of another infamous innuendo-filled song of the Disc, "A Wizard's Staff" ("... has a knob on the end.") Wizards traditionally don't get the innuendo, and are known to occasionally demand people explain what's so funny about there being a knob on the end of their staffs, their being proud of their staffs and polishing them so often, or how the size of the knob/length of the staff is important.

* The self-published and somewhat infamous ''Literature/FelsicCurrent'' relies entirely too heavily upon this trope, much to the detriment of the story.