Realism is always present. The Media has a parallel world with real, faked, manipulated and manipulative stuff.

My son likes to quote something I am to have said once teaching literature: All literature is true, except the names and dates; all history is made up except the names and dates. I may have said it, however, I am sure I borrowed it from somewhere.

Our historical fiction today came out of Reality TV and went right into Reality America. The problem is that the reality is a horror show.

the age of realism is never really over

Its true many of us look back at the most recent past and say what happened to this country we love. We find ourselves in a country now characterized by a society with no ethics, lack of civility or respect for one another, nobody listens to one another, anger (nay rage) at one another, super-selfishness, a preference for conspiracies as opposed to fact based explanations, and a lack of credible leadership, etc. I include myself in this description. It is symptomatic of a move towards dystopia.

More like living in a horribly real time sitcom soap opera reality show...the worst of tv has come to real life!

More like, living dystopian nightmare.

You mean like a continent-size theme park called "America?"