The Ticklish Subject - p. 59 Zizek (Verso: London, 1999)

The paradox thus lies in the fact that 'false' appearance is comprised within the 'thing itself'. And, incidentally, therein lies the dialectical 'unity of essence and appearance' completely missed by the textbook platitudes on how 'essence must appear', and so on: the approximate 'view from afar' which ignores all the details and limits itself to the 'mere appearance', is paradoxically constitutes itself through the very removal of the 'false' appearance from the Real in its immediacy. We thus have three elements, not only essence and its appearing: first, there is reality; within it, there is the 'interface'-screen of appearances; finally, on this screen, essence appears. The catch is thus that appearance is literally the appearing/emerging of the essence - that is, the only place for the essence to dwell. The standard Idealist reduction of reality as such, in its entirety, to the mere appearance of some hidden Essence falls short here: within the domain of 'reality' itself, a line must be drawn which separates 'raw' reality from the screen thorugh which the hidden Essence of reality appears, so that if we take away this medium of appearance, we lose the very 'essence' which appears in it...