“ But the thing about this new reality is that it wasn’t a reality at all—it was a fake. My brother had the real experience; my experience was more hyperreal in the Umberto Eco sense of the word. It was a “reincarnation” of history, a fake that seeks to eliminate one’s desire for the reality by apparently improving upon that reality (e.g., “my” guard was young and handsome, and he had a flag). The falsity of the situation is mutually, tacitly, acknowledged, and on some level it must be the very falsity that provides the fascination. Why else have your picture taken with an obviously fake East German guard?
Hyperreal Berlin - WordRidden