References to books in pill form?

August 15, 2009 11:34 AM

Desperately seeking references to books in pill form. Or liquid form. Or as a tasty spread.

My memory and Google-fu have both grown weak with age. O mighty MeFi, can you give me the titles of any works in any form, books, articles, tv shows, comedy sketches, cartoons, whatever, that contain mentions of or references to books in pill form, or even any sort of acquisition of knowledge through physical ingestion?

posted by Devoidoid to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
posted by ian1977 at 11:38 AM on August 15, 2009

The Woggle-Bug in The Marvelous Land of Oz becomes Thoroughly Educated through the consumption of knowledge pills.
posted by nonane at 11:47 AM on August 15, 2009

Larry Niven included that concept in two or three of his stories. In particular there's one from the "Draco Tavern" series which is named something like "The Fourth Profession". I don't remember the exact name. In it, a drunken alien gives the bar tender several pills, each of which teaches him an entirely new profession. One of them, for instance, teaches him how to be a crewman in an STL starship.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:02 PM on August 15, 2009

nonane: The Woggle-Bug in The Marvelous Land of Oz becomes Thoroughly Educated through the consumption of knowledge pills.

This is riffed in Emerald City Confidential (well worth the ten bucks, by the way) where students consume knowledge at the University from a pill dispenser.

The Matrix has the opposite setup: one pill to go forth and learn truth, the other to return to oblivion.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:09 PM on August 15, 2009

THX1138 has kids hooked up to an IV-like apparatus for learning school subjects.
posted by werkzeuger at 12:12 PM on August 15, 2009

Well, there was a Facts of Life episode set in the future where someone mentioned choking on Natalie's pill-form book. Maybe S09E11,"Golden Oldies."

Lord, I wish I could've posted this anonymously....
posted by codswallop at 12:30 PM on August 15, 2009 [3 favorites]

Be More Chill about a dork in high school and the supercomputer-in-a-pill that guides him out of nerditude. Technically a young adult book, but absolutely witty and smart enough for a grownup read (I liked it, and so did my 12-year-old niece)
posted by stefanie at 12:31 PM on August 15, 2009

The Matrix also has absorption of knowledge via upload to the brain. Instant kung-fu, for instance.
posted by cmgonzalez at 1:27 PM on August 15, 2009

. . . or even any sort of acquisition of knowledge through physical ingestion?

Someone once mentioned an apple . . .
posted by protorp at 2:20 PM on August 15, 2009 [5 favorites]

Jeff Noon's Vurt, Rudy Rucker's White Light.
posted by Leon at 5:12 PM on August 15, 2009

then there's the eye que vine in Ogre Ogre by Piers Anthony. lots of other good reasons to read that one
posted by Redhush at 5:50 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

The second episode of Jimmy Neutron features books in gum form (Birth of a Salesman, the second half of the episode).
posted by pupdog at 11:52 PM on August 15, 2009