These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who [[Ambition Is Evil|aspires to become greater]] than his nature will allow."''|'''Victor Frankenstein''', ''[[Frankenstein]]''}}

[[Forbidden Fruit|Do not read]] [[Self-Demonstrating Article|this page]]. Just click "back", or close this page ''right now''. Your sanity, nay the fate ''of all mankind'', will be in danger.

 

 

If you still wish to go further, see the [[Sub-Trope|Sub Tropes]] below:

It's a pretty safe guess, though ''don't'' confirm it, that these things resemble [[Mind Screw]] and are a [[Mind Rape]].

 

 

Not to be confused with [[You Do NOT Want to Know]]. If your mind has become a horrifying alien monstrosity by this point, avoid interacting with humans, [[Humanity Is Infectious]].

For things that men (the gender) are not supposed to know see [[Women's Mysteries]]

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', performing a forbidden human transmutation will take you to the Gate, where, along with being maimed in some way, you get to look inside and see 'Truth', which, as Izumi stated, looked like hell to her.

** Almost all alchemists die doing so. It is implied by Izumi that just surviving it is a very serious feat. Alphonse would have died if his brother had not brought him back. By the end of the story it is revealed that Father was unable to find enough living alchemists who have survived that as required for his [[Evil Plan]] to work.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* John Byrne's "Trial of Galactus" arc in ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' ended this way when Byrne wrote himself into the final issue. The Watcher snatched him from his home and brought him to the cosmic tribunal, stating that he was the "chronicler" of the Fantastic Four's adventures and thus needed to be there to witness as Reed Richards was brought to trial for the destruction of the Skrull throneworld; he was accused of genocide because he saved the life of Galactus some time before. Various cosmic beings, including Galactus himself and [[Thor|Odin]], arrived to testify on Reed's behalf. In the end, Eternity showed everyone assembled the True Purpose of Galactus. The last page had the Watcher warning Byrne that as he wrote this story, many of the details would escape his memory, as the human mind wasn't meant to hold such knowledge.

* In [[The DCU]], the Anti-Life Equation is a mathematical proof that life, hope and freedom are all pointless. Any sentient being who's forced to comprehend the Equation instantly becomes a mindless drone. [[The Fourth World|Darkseid]]'s ultimate goal is to rule the <s>Universe</s> <s>Multiverse</s> Omniverse with this.

 

== Film ==

'''Leek:''' ''([[Beat]])'' We're not ''allowed'' to know. }}

* In ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'', the villain gets more than she bargained for when she asks to know "everything" from the aliens. Her head literally [[Your Head Asplode|can't take it]].

 

== Literature ==

** [[The Igor]]s of [[Discworld]]'s ''Thief of Time'', strictly speaking don't believe that there ''are'' TMWNMTK, but even they find some obvious stuff that they'd rather not know, such as how it feels to have every single particle of your body sucked through a small hole.

** In general, Terry Pratchett likes to have fun with this trope. For example, The Unseen University library has [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|books that no man can read]] [[Brown Note|without dying or going mad]], but the Librarian is an orangutan, [[No Man of Woman Born|so he's perfectly safe]].

** ''The Shadow Over Innsmouth'' actually makes the trope name a double entendre: {{spoiler|Obed Marsh}} "knew" something man was not meant to "know" [[Interspecies Romance|in the Biblical sense]].

* There's a story by [[Isaac Asimov]] where a man with access to a super computer that can tell you anything if you know how to ask tries to discover the source of humor. He tries because he himself is a wonderful, though nonprofessional, comedian. Eventually it turns out the sense of humor was an alien experiment that would be halted as soon as anyone figured out that it was so, meaning he destroyed everyone's sense of humor. Plus, the aliens will now replace humor with something else. Who knows what?

* In "Macroscope" by [[Piers Anthony]], use of the title machine accesses a mathematical sequence which is shown to whomever uses the device. It destroys the intelligence of anyone above a certain IQ who hasn't evolved beyond violent tendencies.

* A [[Larry Niven]] short story set in Draco's Tavern involves a priest asking one of the ubiquitous Chirpsithtra (who seem to know everything about anything) about the existence of God. The Chirp responds with a story of a race of beings who set about to prove the non/existence of an afterlife. The Chirps lost contact with them and the next time a trade ship visited, they found the entire race had calmly and orderly committed suicide. Whatever they had discovered, it was something that had convinced the entire race they were better off dead, and something the Chirps were not particularly interested in knowing. Rick later explained relating this particular story was the Chirp's way of politely saying "none of your business."

* ''[[Paradise Lost]]'': The angel Raphael answers all of Adam's questions about the War in Heaven, the creation of the world, and the laws of the cosmos (although he doesn't find knowledge of the latter at all practical or useful for humans), but when Adam asks him if angels express love, like humans, Raphael blushes "celestial rosie red" and quickly explains that yes, angels "love," too. How? Whoah, look at the sun, time to go! Live long and prosper!

** Hell, it begins in [[The Bible]], when Eve bites that <s>apple</s> forbidden fruit. It's clear knowledge of right and wrong is something man [[Be Careful What You Wish For|should have been more careful about wanting to know]].

"He said I was but an earthly sprite, knowing naught of the deeper gulfs of cosmic sorcery. Well, this world contains [[Ambition Is Evil|all I desire]]--power, and pomp, and glittering pageantry, handsome men and soft women for [[Sex Slave|my paramours and my slaves]]." }}

* In Algernon Blackwood's "The Man Who Found Out", an explorer discovers the long-lost Tablets of the Gods, reputed to explain the true purpose of human existence. Reading their translation causes him to lose the will to live, and the friend who inherits the Tablets destroys the text and has his own memory of reading it erased via hypnosis.

{{quote|"it's a wonderful sight! Isn't it, Ned?"

"Oh damnation, yes!" Ned Land shot back. "It's superb! I'm furious that I have to admit it. Nobody has ever seen the like. [[Foreshadowing|But this sight could cost us dearly]]. And in all honesty, ''I think we're looking at things God never intended for human eyes."'' }}

* In [[The Dresden Files]] novel ''Turn Coat'', Harry uses his Wizard's Sight<ref>A special ability that lets a wizard see things as they are, for the low, low cost of never being able to forget it</ref> to figure out what exactly is following him. He glimpses the [[Eldritch Abomination|Skinwalker]]...and comes back to himself about three minutes later, having almost crashed his car, gibbering uncontrollably. He gets himself under control, tries to remember what he saw...and comes back to himself ''five'' minutes later, incoherent and barely in control of himself. He realizes that driving is a bad idea, gets out of his car and starts walking to get help when his thoughts just barely brush against the idea of what he saw...and he comes back to himself, curled into a fetal position on the sidewalk, crying and ''in physical pain''.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'', there is a secret only the dead know. When Annie tells this secret {{spoiler|to Owen, her murderer, it torments him, driving him to confess his crimes.}}

* On ''[[Babylon 5]]'', a Dilgar war criminal buys her way out of prosecution by offering the formula for an immortality serum. The catch is that the formula's ingredients must be fatally extracted from sentient beings, making it a surefire trigger for mass murder and a thing Sentient Beings Were Not Meant To Know. {{spoiler|The Vorlons, fortunately, agreed.}}

{{quote|"It is one of the great mysteries of the universe, that we will either never know the answer to, or which would drive you quite mad if you did."}}

** Possibly subverted though. The ''Final Five'' were rendered things-Cylons-are-not-meant-to-know because {{spoiler|Model One/Cavil}} made them so. Their origins are far more mundane than the Cylons think.

* Donna suffers the brown note variety in [[Doctor Who]] when her conscious is merged with the doctor's. 900+ years of time lord knowledge and experience shoved into her human brain nearly kills her.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' had "The Funniest Joke In The World" sketch; about a man who wrote a joke so hilarious, everyone who read or heard it died. It goes without saying that it was [[Hilarity Ensues|played for (fortunately non-lethal) laughs]].

 

== [[Religion]] ==

* Revelation 10:4 "When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying; Keep secret what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down."

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The ''Illuminati: New World Order'' card game has a card called "Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know". There was a gag card appropriately titled "Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know In the Biblical Sense".

* ''[[GURPS]] IOU'' (Illuminati University) had a class in the Thaumaturgy department called "Things Men Were Not Meant to Know". The next class was "Men Things Were Not Meant to Know".

* ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'''s Guardians of the Veil justify many of their actions with the idea that there are plenty of things that man was not meant to know (and not quite as many things which even mages shouldn't). They are often at odds with the Mysterium, who believe man is supposed to know ''everything''.

** There's a [[Prestige Class|Legacy]], the Logophages, devoted entirely to this idea—it's their job to not only track down the things man must not know, but to make sure they remain unknown, even to themselves. Needless to say, they're masters of memory alteration and occasionally give their own brain a good scrubbing just in case.

** Maybe the most common [[Co C]] joke is just the single sentence "I read the book".

* In ''[[Exalted]]'' a demon exists called Orabilis; his title is The End of All Wisdom. He builds libraries, and it is his will that demons and men read in them and grow wise. Sometimes people take two and two, though, and get this trope out of it; at that point, he's free to pursue you out of Hell, drag you back, and cast you into the sky where you spend a thousand years dying.

* A lot about the world in ''[[Kult]]''. OTOH, you have to learn this if you want to break free from it.

* In the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' tabletop RPG, the ability to speak and write in the demonic language will slowly eat away at the sanity of mortals who dare to learn it. Characters who possess this forbidden knowledge must make a saving throw every year, with each failure resulting in the permanent loss of a wisdom point. Meaning that unless you have consistently good rolls your character will eventually go insane and die.

 

== Toys ==

* Happens to Lariska when [[Eldritch Abomination|Tren Krom]] [[Mind Rape]]s her in ''[[Bionicle]]'', as his search for information in her mind also causes her to get glimses into ''his'' mind.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[La-Mulana]]'', the {{spoiler|Skimpy Swimsuit--and a nice screen-sized shot of Lemeza wearing it--}}is your final reward for beating Hell Temple. Duracuets warns you on multiple occasions that the reward was not meant to be seen and that you may regret obtaining it.

* ''[[Rayman]] 3'' features a ''weaponized'' thing Man (or rather, a cute little fairy-like species) was not meant to know. There is a secret so horrible that it corrupts anyone who hears it. A single member of the species somehow learned it, and he captures others and whispers it to them, then lets them whisper it to others, like an intellectual [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. It'd be horrific if the entire game weren't [[Played for Laughs]].

{{quote|'''Theo''': “There are things your kind is better off not knowing.” So I’ve been taught, which means... I mustn’t... But using THAT for cooking...}}

* The Bureau's [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|interrogation]] and [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torturing]] techniques in ''[[Escape Velocity]]: Nova'' are alluded to but ''never explained''. All that other characters will say of them is that they are "sickening" and too horrible to describe. In one plot line, the player is captured and suffers it first-hand: The game dialogue will only tell you that what you experienced is too awful to remember, and that for the rest of your life whenever you even attempt to recall what you have been through, you will lapse into incoherent, terrified screaming.

* In ''[[The Reconstruction]]'', Falitza allegedly destroyed her mind by "peering into the unknown". {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|Subverted]], though -- it's [[Obfuscating Insanity]]. She was so sick of being "little miss perfect" that she staged the whole thing to get thrown into Sanctifel.}}

* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'', the final part of {{spoiler|Big Hat Logan's storyline if you rescue him and learn all of his sorceries has him going insane and becoming Hollowed while trying to decipher and duplicate the spells of Seath the Scaleless, the dragon progenitor of sorcery.}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Vaarsuvius of ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' regularly boasts about know secrets that would drive lesser minds mad.

** '''MAD!!'''

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[SCP Foundation]]'', the [DATA EXPUNGED] are covered up with [DATA EXPUNGED] to prevent making people [DATA EXPUNGED]

* One of the many theories connected to the [[The Slender Man Mythos|Slender Man]] is that the more you know about him, the more likely it is that you'll be next...

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]

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[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]