“I don’t know how I feel about MTV’s The Real World,” he said. “I mean, is it really real? How real is it, really? Is it a depiction of reality, or is it a reflection of what we perceive to be reality? They advertise this as ‘reality programming,’ but isn’t anything programmed inherently fabricated? How real is real, you know?”
She said nothing. She continued smoking a menthol cigarette. Twenty seconds passed.
“Well, what do you think?” he finally asked.
“About what,” she asked, exhaling through her teeth.
“About The Real World,” he repeated. “Do you think it’s real?”
“Compared to what?”
“Well… to… I guess compared to things that are completely real.”
Twenty more seconds passed.
“Is the show taped or edited in the Fourth Dimension?” she asked.
“No.”
“Are the characters robots?”
“No.”
“Can the episodic plotlines only be perceived by people who have ingested mind-expanding hallucinogens, such as lysergic acid diethylamide, mescaline, phencyclidine, ketamine, or psychedelic mushrooms?”
“No.”
“Well then,” she concluded, “it sounds real to me.”