Portable hole

Template:Short description Template:Spatial anomalies in fiction

In various works of speculative fiction, a portable hole is a two-dimensional device that can be used to contravene the laws of physics<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> by creating a passage through a solid surface, through which characters can move.<ref name=":0"/>

Notable usesEdit

File:Portable hole.png

A cartoon character manipulating a portable hole

The 1955 Looney Tunes cartoon, The Hole Idea, presents a fictional account in which Calvin Q. Calculus invents the device.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 in The Hole Idea.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link Template:Cbignore</ref> The concept was shown in The 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp In 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit again used a portable hole as a plot device.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Detective Eddie Valiant is able to escape being crushed by a steamroller by using one, echoing the 1955 Looney Tunes gag.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 1988 cartoon series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh features a portable hole with similar properties in the episode "Bubble Trouble."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link Template:Cbignore</ref>

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the novelization of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Elliott uses a portable hole when the lead characters are playing Dungeons & Dragons.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In episode 695 of the Final Fantasy-based comic 8-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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Rajiv Joseph's play, Guards at the Taj, one of the characters, Humayun, invents a transportable hole.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Humayun describes it as a hole one can carry and attach to anything to make a hole in it.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Other uses of the termEdit

A 1933 newspaper described John 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Gramicidin A has been described as a portable hole; it is a polypeptide with a helical shape. When it forms a dimer, it can embed itself in cellular bilayer membranes and form a hole through which water molecules can pass.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Museum of Modern Art has a work by Ben Vautier titled, The First Portable Hole (Le Premier trou portatif).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Shari Lewis presents 101 magic tricks for kids to do, a trick named "the portable hole" is described.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A card trick titled Acme Portable Hole is available commercially.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>