Help In These Times raise $10,000 in three weeks! Donate now to support original and incisive journalism!

The Desert of the Real

Is this the end of fantasy?

By Slavoj Zizek

Christopher Isherwood, an Englishman who became an American, once gave expression to the unreality of American daily life, exemplified in the motel room: “American motels are unreal! … They are deliberately designed to be unreal. … The Europeans hate us because we’ve retired to live inside our advertisements, like hermits going into caves to contemplate.” The Wachowski brothers’ 1999 hit film… return to article

Also by Slavoj Zizek
Popular Discussions