What is Realism?

Realism is the overriding method behind fictional representations in all media in modern American society today. Such is the insistence upon realism that when confronted with a stylistic device that doesn't attempt to replicate what we view as the realities of life down to its most mundane level, Americans are quick to reject it as meaningless. The primary fault for this preference for realistic details over imagination is film, of course. Because the tradition Hollywood film takes such extraordinary pains to get details correct (often more pain than to get the authenticity of idea anywhere near correct) stylistic interpretations have never been a major constituent of the cinema and they have all but disappeared from the literary realm as well.