#unreality

As a boy I used to go to the Chamber of Horrors at the annual fair, to look at the wax figures of Emperors and Kings, of heroes and murderers of the day. The dead now had that same unreality, which shocks without arousing pity. ↗

— Ernst Toller

#arousing #boy #chamber #day #dead

It was a fairy tale, no fooling. It was unreality becoming real. This frightened her. Because people don't care for unreality becoming real. It pricks their well-fed minds, you see, with something like a hunger pang. They prefer the logical stuffiness of expectancy. It is only at certain times that they weaken, letting imagination in. That's the time to get them. (“The Disinheritors”) ↗

— Richard Matheson

#imagination #rationality #reality #unreality #imagination

For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it. It should have the dignity of a ceremony, as well as its unreality, and should combine the insincere character of a romantic play with the wit and beauty that make such plays delightful to us. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#good-society #unreality #art

What has reality shows got to do with reality? It is beyond unreality; there is nothing real about it. ↗

— Morley Safer

#beyond #got #nothing #real #reality