"[The mind] must combine the indicative mood with the subjunctive one, yoking a coldly demystified sense of the present to a warmly imaginative leap beyond it. It must respect and refuse the world in the same act. The mind is called upon to be both mirror and lamp, faithfully reflecting its surroundings while shedding a transformative light upon them. The flights of fantasy which get in the way of trying to see the situation straight are vital to imagining an alternative to it. We must be moved by visions of a future in which men and women would be made physically sick by the act of dominating others, while remaining stony-faced and churlishly suspicious before the blandishments of the present. If the Romantic conforms the world to his or her desire, and the realist conforms the mind to the world, the revolutionary is called upon to do both at once." — Terry Eagleton, Figures of Dissent
