Of course it wasn't.

[Maria isn't placating him. She believes her own words; they're why she objects so strongly to the overlays. People lose themselves.

But it doesn't make her incapable of finding amusement in his description. She's only human.]

And do you think he would have been successful, if he'd had a real life to live and not a temporary false one? Artistic tendencies are something you and he have in common.