| Spatial anomalies in fiction |
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Black holes in fiction •Portable hole •Teleportation in fiction •Wormholes in fiction •Stargate •Warp drive •Hyperspace •Time travel in fiction |
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In various works ofspeculative fiction, aportable hole is a two-dimensional device that can be used to contravene thelaws of physics[1] by creatinga passage through a solid surface, through which characters can move.[2]
The 1955Looney Tunes cartoon,The Hole Idea, presents a fictional account in which Calvin Q. Calculus invents the device.[2][3]: 317 [4][5] Another early Looney Tunes example,Beep Prepared from 1961, developed the trope further and features the Road Runner lifting a (previously ordinary) hole off the ground, carrying it, then laying it down for the Coyote to fall through; the hole in this case is mundane until the start of the gag, as opposed to an intentional scientific creation as inThe Hole Idea.[6] The concept was shown inThe Beatles' 1968 movie,Yellow Submarine, where Ringo picks up a hole from the Sea of Holes, stores it in his pocket, and uses it later to release Sgt. Pepper's Band from captivity.[2][7]: 249 [8]: 348 In 1988,Who Framed Roger Rabbit again used a portable hole as a plot device.[9][10] Detective Eddie Valiant is able to escape being crushed by a steamroller by using one, echoing the 1955Looney Tunes gag.[11][12] The 1988 cartoon seriesThe New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh features a portable hole with similar properties in the episode "Bubble Trouble."[13]
In theDungeons & Dragonsfantasyrole-playing game, a portable hole is a circle of cloth made from phase spider webs, strands of ether and beams of starlight. When deployed, it creates an extradimensional space six feet in diameter by ten feet deep. Folding the cloth causes the entrance to this space to disappear, but items placed inside the hole remain there. Sufficient air is contained in the hole to support life for up to ten minutes.[14][15] In the novelization ofE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Elliott uses a portable hole when the lead characters are playingDungeons & Dragons.[16]
In episode 695 of theFinal Fantasy-based comic8-Bit Theater, Fighter, after buying some items and a portable hole with Red Mage, decides to "work smarter, not harder", and put all the items into the portable hole. He then proceeds to fold the portable hole into itself.[17]
InRajiv Joseph's play,Guards at the Taj, one of the characters, Humayun, invents atransportable hole.[18][19] Humayun describes it as a hole one can carry and attach to anything to make a hole in it.[20]
A 1933 newspaper describedJohn Williamson's underwater photography apparatus as a portable "hole in the sea". It was a bendable tube from the ship to the sea bottom for a photographer to descend.[21]
A 1949 newspaper column by Truman Twill speculates on a prefabricated underground storage unit described as "a portable hole to be sunk in the ground at a desirable location".[22]
Gramicidin A has been described as a portable hole; it is apolypeptide with a helical shape. When it forms adimer, it can embed itself incellular bilayer membranes and form a hole through which water molecules can pass.[23]
TheMuseum of Modern Art has a work byBen Vautier titled,The First Portable Hole (Le Premier trou portatif).[24]
InShari Lewis presents 101 magic tricks for kids to do, a trick named "the portable hole" is described.[25] A card trick titledAcme Portable Hole is available commercially.[26]
portable
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