the abyss means...

"Then where is Reality?" barked Tock.
"Right here," cried Alec, waving his arms. "You're standing in the middle of Main Street."
They looked around very carefully. Tock sniffed suspiciously at the wind and the Humbug gingerly stabbed his cane in the air, but there was nothing at all to see.
"It's really a very pleasant city," said Alec as he strolled down the street, pointing out several of the sights, which didn't seem to be there, and tipping his cap to the passers-by. There were great crowds of people rushing along with their heads down, and they all appeared to know exactly where they were going as they darted down and around the nonexistent streets and in and out of the missing buildings.
"I don't see any city," said Milo very softly.
"Neither do they," Alec remarked sadly, "but it hardly matters, for they don't miss it at all."
...
"Why don't they live in Illusions?" suggested the Humbug. "It's much prettier."
"Many of them do," he answered, "but its' just as bad to live in a place where what you see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is."

The Phantom Tollbooth

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