"The unreal artificial character of our politics reflects elites' insulation from common life," Lasch wrote, "together with a secret conviction that the real problems are insoluble".
"I don't think it's as simple as wanting to watch cute animals over people, but [instead] wanting to see an unreal character tackle real problems," Tony Celano, a professional animator and comedian, told me.
But there are also some cutesy and unreal stock characters: Tom has two confidant-buddies from a 90s-era Friends-type comedy world and, annoyingly, an all-knowing kid sister whose wisdom and common sense are retch-inducing.
Similarly Ian Ziering, a star of "90210," said that no matter how glamorous or even unreal the characters on the show seemed at times, audiences related to the series because there was an underpinning of seriousness.
The film has also been criticized for creating unreal worlds and characters, to which Johar has said that this was part of his vision of escapism.
Instead, she urges, we should enjoy what fiction does give us, which is a release from the moral obligation to feel something for invented characters as you would for a real, live human being in pain or suffering which paradoxically means readers sometimes "respond with greater empathy to an unreal situation and characters because of the protective fictionality".
Just as he builds modular sculptures from stone, and long-exposure paintings with Christmas lights, Body Reconstructions sees the artist building unreal forms and characters with his own unabashedly-revealed body.
Characters in Unreal Tournament speak fluent macho, calling faltering players "weak" and locker-room names.
It's the kind of decision made by fictional characters on unreal quests, or by characters whose authors need them to get out of the way.
Unlike Quake III, Unreal Tournament's game characters are rendered to look and act like people, not demons.
