Langford's basilisk

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

After an object in David Langford's short story "BLIT".[1]

Noun

Langford's basilisk (plural Langford's basilisks)

  1. (science fiction) An image which causes insanity or death on viewing.
    Hypernym: cognitohazard
    • 2002 February 27, Charles Stross, “What to throw in?”, in rec.arts.sf.composition‎[2] (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>:
      Dead easy: the ones who watched it all died. (Invoke Langford's Basilisk if you need a real reason.)
    • 2013 December 29, RecArtsSfPolicyWonk, “What Did You Watch? 2013-12-29 (Saturday)”, in rec.arts.tv‎[3] (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>:
      The technical term is "Langford basilisk". I expect the real deal would induce nothing more permanent than an inconveniently-timed reboot, if it can even exist.

References

  1. ^ David Langford (September-October 1988) “BLIT”, in Interzone‎[1], number 25

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