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A core tenet of Zen Buddhism is that life is full of paradox. This article explores the paradoxical reactions of criminologists to the work of Richard Quinney. Quinney, a renowned criminologist, is known among a majority of his colleagues as “important” yet “unreal.” Meanwhile, some people who have undertaken journeys of what might be called self-discovery, including the present authors (two of whom are ex-convicts turned criminologists), celebrate his work as the most real criminology around. The article explores this paradox.