Richard Vander Wende on the Fantasy of Reality

"All good science fiction and fantasy is about our world. So it's important to me that my designs not look alien -- outside the spectrum of existing species.A lot of people who design creatures ignore our natural laws in pursuit of uniqueness, and wind up with something that no longer relates to the world around us." -Richard Vander Wende (a lead designer in Aladdin and Riven) as quoted in Feature Creatures

Earlier in the Article he talks about seeing the world through new eyes "...I looked up and saw sparrows landing on a sign. Suddenly, the whole scene became completely abstract, as though I were seeing it through nascent eyes, I realized I could remove all preconceptions about these birds. That ability was very exciting"

The ability to see the fantasy of reality, sometimes I feel like that's what I live for. Chesterton conveys that in alot of his poetry. Like this one:

                "If trees were tall and grasses short,
               As in some crazy tale,
             If here and there a sea were blue
               Beyond the breaking pale,
           
              ....."