No Ontological Inertia: Difference between revisions
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* The fairy tale "[[wikipedia:The Bronze Ring|The Bronze Ring]]", found in [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''The Blue Fairy Book'', features a classical genie ring. Ontological inertia is ''intentionally canceled'' when the black sorcerer gets hold of the ring; his first command is "make waste of all that you've done." This is a common stratagem in fairy tales where wishing rings are involved, and may be one of the reasons usage limits were hardwired into later models. |
* The fairy tale "[[wikipedia:The Bronze Ring|The Bronze Ring]]", found in [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''The Blue Fairy Book'', features a classical genie ring. Ontological inertia is ''intentionally canceled'' when the black sorcerer gets hold of the ring; his first command is "make waste of all that you've done." This is a common stratagem in fairy tales where wishing rings are involved, and may be one of the reasons usage limits were hardwired into later models. |
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* Justified in the second book of the ''[[Chanters of Tremaris]]'' Trilogy, ''The Waterless Sea'' when {{spoiler|the Palace of Cobwebs collapses to dust when the children are rescued and after the iron-call chant is stopped}}, as it is explained that the continuous iron-call chant was the only thing holding it together by that point, and stopping the chanters meant that the entire structure had about as much support as a gigantic sand castle. |
* Justified in the second book of the ''[[Chanters of Tremaris]]'' Trilogy, ''The Waterless Sea'' when {{spoiler|the Palace of Cobwebs collapses to dust when the children are rescued and after the iron-call chant is stopped}}, as it is explained that the continuous iron-call chant was the only thing holding it together by that point, and stopping the chanters meant that the entire structure had about as much support as a gigantic sand castle. |
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* In [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]] fairy tale "Snowdrop"<ref>you know, the one better known to Disney aficionados as ''[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White]]''</ref>, all of Snowdrop's stepmother's attempts to kill her work this way. She laces Snowdrop's dress up tightly and leaves her for dead, but the dwarfs unlace it and Snowdrop is fine again. She gives Snowdrop a poisoned comb, but the dwarfs take it out of Snowdrop's hair and again she's fine. Even the famous poisoned apple is like this: it lodges in Snowdrop's throat, and when the prince dislodges it she wakes up. |
* In [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]] fairy tale "Snowdrop"<ref>you know, the one better known to Disney aficionados as ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]''</ref>, all of Snowdrop's stepmother's attempts to kill her work this way. She laces Snowdrop's dress up tightly and leaves her for dead, but the dwarfs unlace it and Snowdrop is fine again. She gives Snowdrop a poisoned comb, but the dwarfs take it out of Snowdrop's hair and again she's fine. Even the famous poisoned apple is like this: it lodges in Snowdrop's throat, and when the prince dislodges it she wakes up. |
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* Played with in a short story by [[Neil Gaiman]]. The story itself is framed as being told in a club for famous con-men, by one of the best-who proves this claim by relating the tale of how he got into the club by selling a bridge (which the other members deride as so base and guileless that having ever tried such a scheme ought to disqualify you from getting in at all). In the particular corner of the cosmos the tale occurs in, magic was used regularly and the conman referred to [[Ontological Inertia]] as a "magical half-life", defined as the length of time after a magician's death that a magical working would stand, to convince several very rich people that an extremely valuable bridge constructed by magic was nearing the end of its half-life and that, by paying him a nominal fee of a few thousand, they themselves could profit greatly when it came down. |
* Played with in a short story by [[Neil Gaiman]]. The story itself is framed as being told in a club for famous con-men, by one of the best-who proves this claim by relating the tale of how he got into the club by selling a bridge (which the other members deride as so base and guileless that having ever tried such a scheme ought to disqualify you from getting in at all). In the particular corner of the cosmos the tale occurs in, magic was used regularly and the conman referred to [[Ontological Inertia]] as a "magical half-life", defined as the length of time after a magician's death that a magical working would stand, to convince several very rich people that an extremely valuable bridge constructed by magic was nearing the end of its half-life and that, by paying him a nominal fee of a few thousand, they themselves could profit greatly when it came down. |
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* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "Fall of the House of Usher" describes in great detail how a mansion decays and collapses before the protagonist's eyes after its residents die. |
* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "Fall of the House of Usher" describes in great detail how a mansion decays and collapses before the protagonist's eyes after its residents die. |
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** Played straight in the serial "Terror of the Autons," the Master's somewhat inauspicious debut. He awakens a dormant meteorite containing the Nestene Consciousness, which animates a group of Autons (plastic automata) he created, which go on to create second-generation Autons that also come alive with the Nestene Consciousness. When the Autons take care of the first phase of the invasion, the Master uses a radio telescope to broadcast some kind of energy that allows a Nestene mothership to instantly materialize in Earth's sky. When the Doctor reverses the polarity of the telescope, not only does the mothership disappear, but ''every Auton falls lifelessly to the ground''. |
** Played straight in the serial "Terror of the Autons," the Master's somewhat inauspicious debut. He awakens a dormant meteorite containing the Nestene Consciousness, which animates a group of Autons (plastic automata) he created, which go on to create second-generation Autons that also come alive with the Nestene Consciousness. When the Autons take care of the first phase of the invasion, the Master uses a radio telescope to broadcast some kind of energy that allows a Nestene mothership to instantly materialize in Earth's sky. When the Doctor reverses the polarity of the telescope, not only does the mothership disappear, but ''every Auton falls lifelessly to the ground''. |
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*** Justified, in that the Autons are not independently intelligent, but are directly controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. |
*** Justified, in that the Autons are not independently intelligent, but are directly controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. |
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** Also played straight in [[Doctor Who |
** Also played straight in [[Doctor Who/Recap/NS/S2/E01 New Earth|an early episode]] of Tennant's run. The Doctor uses a vaccine to cure a zombie apocalypse, complete with their rotting flesh re-forming before our eyes. |
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{{quote|'''Doctor''': I'm the Doctor, and ''I cured them!''}} |
{{quote|'''Doctor''': I'm the Doctor, and ''I cured them!''}} |
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** Another ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example in the new series' episode "Vampires in Venice"; when Eleven turns off the generator that begun to give Venice its own natural-disaster apocalypse, including a tidal wave started by an earthquake, within less than a second the sky clears up, the clouds move, and everything is sunshine and rainbows. |
** Another ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example in the new series' episode "Vampires in Venice"; when Eleven turns off the generator that begun to give Venice its own natural-disaster apocalypse, including a tidal wave started by an earthquake, within less than a second the sky clears up, the clouds move, and everything is sunshine and rainbows. |
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