You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Words describing it fail. Pages relating it shrivel. Tales recounting it end."''|'''[http://magiccards.info/arb/en/28.html Nemesis of Reason] flavour text''', ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''}}
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== Literature ==
* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[Flatland]]'', whose protagonists are two-dimensional polygons for whom the very notion of three-dimensional creatures inspires [[Cosmic Horror]]. When a Flatlander is [[Pals with Jesus|befriended by a]] 3-dimensional sphere, he literally
* The angels in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' are described as being like this - humans and even witches see them as human shaped, being incapable of perceiving their true form which is more like architecture. At least until Baruch and Balthamos come along and really do seem like nothing more than slightly snobby see-through humans.
* The [[Eldritch Abomination|monster]] [[IT]] from [[Stephen King]]'s book of the same name. The closest approximation for its physical form that the protagonists could comprehend was a {{spoiler|[[Giant Spider]].}}
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** Death gets this whenever he interacts with [[Muggles|humans]], who seem confused because ''someone'' is talking to them, and it appears to be a skeleton in a cloak, but that's ridiculous, so the mind just rejects it. Children, however, aren't nearly as mentally fixed, so their minds easily wrap around it and they see him as he really is.
*** And there are occasions when Death CAN be seen. Most notably, in Wyrd Sisters, when Death decides to take the place of an actor who is supposed to play him in a [[Macbeth]] expy, everyone in the audience is expecting to see death and, therefore, does. Death, not being used to such a large audience, gets stage fright. And it is hilarious.
* Mostly averted in [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s work as his [[Eldritch Abomination
** Nyarlathotep all but says this in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" when appearing as a human (though a superhumanly charismatic human, with "the fascination of a dark god or fallen archangel") - "pray to all space that you may never meet me in my thousand other forms."
** Although it's never explicitly mentioned, considering the insignificance of mankind in Lovecraft's cosmology it's very unlikely that the Elder Gods naturally look humanoid. More likely the human-like forms they appear in are used by them in order to not drive humans insane (the Elder Gods oppose the Great Old Ones, and since mankind would be destroyed if the Old Ones awaken, they are the closest thing Lovecraft has for benevolent deities. Not that that's saying much).
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** All which is rather odd, since Abraham had no trouble with having God visit his tent and chat with him, face to face.
*** God probably took [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|a form that Abraham was comfortable with]], shape-shifting shouldn't be beyond the powers of an omnipotent God.
** In another incident (Exodus chapter 24 for those who care) God appeared in full glory for seventy-four leaders of Israel total. The fun part? It mentions that they all [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|ate and drank together]] [[Katamari Damacy|(don't ask what happens when God gets drunk)]]. And it says that God stood on a sapphire pavement. And [[Eldritch Abomination|absolutely]] ''[[Nothing Is Scarier|nothing]]''
** Also applies to the Seraphs, God's personal throne guards. They keep themselves hidden with their wings ([[Eldritch Abomination|they have six, by the way]]), as any mortal who looks at them directly bursts into flames.
** All this stuff is technically moot [[Fridge Logic|if you think about it]], since you only get to meet God and the seraphs after you're already dead and in Heaven.
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* In [[Classical Mythology|Greek and Roman myth]], mortals that look upon a God/Goddess's true form instantly ''burst into flames and die'', because the gods are that awesome.
** This is also mentioned in ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]''.
* In [[The Quran]] Moses asks to see God, who replies that the sight of Him to a living mortal would be too much... but He ''will'' reveal Himself to that mountain over
* In the theological theory of [[Pandeism]], it is proposed that those who are somehow able to contact the mind of our Creator as it unconsciously underlies our Universe find that experience so incomprehensible that their tiny human minds automatically defend themselves by interpreting such encounters as conscious communications from culturally familiar conceptions of gods, thereby explaining ''all'' revelation and scripture.
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* The Wave Existence from ''[[Xenogears]]'' is a fourth-dimensional being that humans are unable to comprehend, and he appears as a vaguely star-like... thing from which waves emanate similarly to the ripples on a pond's surface.
* The dragons of ''[[Rift]]'' [[Eldritch Abomination|aren't dragons at all...]]
* The attacks of the [[Orochi]] in ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' involve a lot of whole-screen flashes and invisible
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Strange Journey]]'', ''all'' demons are [[Invisible Monsters]] to regular humans. When a third (and [[The Chessmaster|not entirely benevolent]]) third party grants the Investigation Team the Demon Summoning Program, they can "see" the demons... as blobs of unidentifiable static who speak only gibberish. You must fight and defeat these foes in order to identify them and be able to translate their speech.
** And even then, {{spoiler|the master, creator, and lord of the Schwarzwelt, as well as the mother of all life on the planet}}, radiates such immense ''power'' that it's utterly ''impossible'' to recognize its form. Only by receiving the "brilliance" of a traveler of the Schwarzwelt can you get a glimpse at its true form.
** "Thou canst not comprehend what I have done"
* Tohno Shiki of [[Tsukihime]] can see the 'death' of anything that has a flaw, but since human brains can't truly comprehend death as it applies to nonliving things, Shiki has to struggle to kill inanimate objects. He can even kill conceptual things like time or disease, although this places so much stress on his brain it nearly kills him. There are also beings who simply have no 'death', and thus cannot be killed, such as Arcueid during the night (which Shiki finds out to his chagrin during Ciel's route.)
* [[Word of God]] says that [http://www.imperial-library.info/content/cosmology this holds true] for the [[Alien Sky|night sky]] in [[The Elder Scrolls]]. Mortals can't comprehend an infinite plane of existence enclosed in another infinite plane of existence which itself is enclosed in another infinite plane of existence so it all appears as a solar system.
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** Of course, {{spoiler|this was all fake anyway}}.
* After getting crap for using [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]], an alien on [[The Venture Bros]] got mad enough to show them his real form. All the audience got to see was that it revealed itself by ripping its "face" open down the middle, had flashing lights, tentacles, and was enough to make a (mentally handicapped) character crap his pants.
* The alien Vok in ''[[Beast Wars]]:[[Transformers]]'' capture Optimus Primal and communicate with him. But to do so, they first scan his memory banks for what he would consider a figure of
== Real Life ==
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*** Mathematicians have explained that infinity is more of a process than a value, because you can't define infinity's value other than "really large".
*** Related to this is infinitesimal, which is a something that can only be described as a value that is infinitely small, but still reasonably significant. It's probably first heard when taking a physics class or learning about integrals.
** We don't even need to resort to very large numbers for indescribably. The amount of numbers between, say, 0 and 1 is a ''greater infinity'' than the amount of possible permutations of words in any language. This means that the total amount of numbers between 0 and 1 is
*** And then keep in mind that this is true for decimal numbers between every single pair of whole numbers you can think of. And then invert that, because the same is true for negative numbers.
* Still about mathematics, there are fractals. Their number of dimensions varies whether it's topological or not, and their "true" (Hausdorff) number of dimensions is often non-integer. The Menger sponge, for example, is an object which has zero volume and an infinite surface area. Which means that any Menger sponge you'll see is only an approximation.
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