{"id":6561,"date":"2024-01-22T00:12:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T06:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=6561"},"modified":"2024-06-10T23:35:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T04:35:53","slug":"the-emperors-new-clothes-andersons-fable-remains-a-useful-metaphor-and-illustrative-lesson-for-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/the-emperors-new-clothes-andersons-fable-remains-a-useful-metaphor-and-illustrative-lesson-for-today\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d \u2013 Andersen\u2019s fable remains a useful metaphor and illustrative lesson for today"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossber<\/a>g<\/p>\n

One of the best choices that LFS members have made in voting annually in the Best Classic Fiction category, in my opinion, was the decision to induct \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d<\/a> in 2000 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s timeless anti-authoritarian parable isn\u2019t merely a fable for children but a cautionary tale for everyone about the presumptions and illusions of power — not to mention the dangers of sheep-like conformity…. lessons that still apply today. (Perhaps especially today.)<\/p>\n

Possibly because the Danish author\u2019s 1837 story is often grouped somewhat diminutively with Anderson\u2019s other stories as mere \u201cchildren\u2019s\u201d literature or perhaps for other reasons, \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d often seems to be overlooked or dismissed by contemporary columnists and bloggers as a still-resonant metaphor for the blind spots and knee-jerk tribalism of our increasingly conformist, censorious, culture-cancelling and fearful era.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s a pleasure to come across a relatively rare reference to Andersen\u2019s classic among today’s vast social commentary \u2013 moreover, not just a brief reference, but a full column from a regular Substack writer who makes the story central to his insightful and timely themes.<\/p>\n

The column is even titled in honor of the fable: \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Art.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Columnist Michael Huemer begins the recent edition of his Substack-platformed regular \u201cFake Nous\u201d column<\/a> this way:<\/p>\n

“In Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s famous tale, the vain Emperor buys a magnificent set of clothes from a pair of weavers, who inform him that these clothes are only visible to smart and competent people. He goes out in a great procession, showing off his new clothes to the public. The townspeople, who have also been informed of how these clothes work, hold forth about their beauty \u2026 until one child blurts out that the emperor is naked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Author Hans Christian Andersen (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The story resonates because it illustrates real human tendencies:<\/p>\n

1. The emperor and townsfolk are unsure of their own competence, so they are not sure if there really are clothes there. In case there are, they don\u2019t want to reveal their own failings to others by admitting that they can\u2019t see the clothes.<\/p>\n

2. Even those who realize that the emperor is naked still don\u2019t want to say anything because they don\u2019t want to stand out from the crowd or contradict all of their fellows. (As in the Asch conformity experiment.)<\/p>\n

3. The child naively blurts out the truth because he has not yet learned to fake reality like the adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE PRETENSIONS OF MODERN ART<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much of the rest of his essay uses the social psychology and themes of Andersen\u2019s classic fable as a parallel and metaphor in analyzing similar patterns in today\u2019s art world:<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people suspect that the art world suffers from a similar problem. Perhaps a great deal of art is not as good as people say it is, or maybe isn\u2019t good at all, and art people are just trying to trick us in the way that the swindlers tricked the Emperor,\u201d Huemer writes.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>They tell us that these art works have great merit, but that only a person of\u00a0refined taste<\/em>\u00a0can see it. When we fail to see it, we\u2019re not sure if it\u2019s not there or if we just lack refined taste. So we pretend to see it, and maybe we talk ourselves into thinking that we actually see it. In doing so, we create further social pressure for others to pretend to see the greatness of these artworks,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story is far more likely than Andersen\u2019s story, because art perception is highly subjective and can more plausibly be claimed to depend upon some special, difficult-to-detect capacity of \u201crefined taste\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cy Twombly “blackboard” painting (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

$70 MILLION FOR \u201cSCRIBBLES\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amusingly, Huemer cites as one example of this art-world phenomenon the $70 million that someone paid for a painting by the elite-idolized abstract artist Cy Twombly.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpainting\u201d was basically a blackboard with \u201cscribbles\u201d on it, Huemer observes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cy Twombly “blackboard” painting (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His frank comment:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no art expert, but I call bullshit on that. If somebody tries to tell me that is a great artwork, I am going to find it vastly more probable that that person is bullshitting me than that that is actually great art. Indeed, I would go so far as to say the above image has about zero artistic value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is an existence proof for the \u201cEmperor\u2019s New Art\u201d phenomenon. Now that we know this can happen, we can wonder how many other artworks have benefitted from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

CASABLANCA AND OLD \u201cWILL\u201d SHAKESPEARE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hummer then applies his Andersen-inspired analysis to what happened when a \u201cblind\u201d manuscript of the screenplay of the venerated and beloved film classic\u00a0Casablanca\u00a0<\/em>was submitted to more than 200 Hollywood agencies and film studios.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What happened next, back in the 1980s, when the manuscript was submitted by a journalist as an experiment with a fake name as the author?<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the 85 agencies who claimed to have read it, only 33 recognized it. (Another 8 thought it was\u00a0similar<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Casablanca<\/em>.) Of those that did\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>recognize it, almost all rejected it on the merits. Only\u00a0three<\/em>\u00a0wanted to represent it, plus another one who wanted to turn it into a novel. The rejecting studios gave many criticisms, especially of the supposedly excessive dialogue (which is actually the best aspect of the film),\u201d Huemer writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows, again, that people\u2019s perception of artistic quality is heavily influenced by what they know about the reputation of the art work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Perhaps most controversially and even dubiously (imo), Huemer then extensively argues that Shakespeare himself has been massively overrated. (That’s a viewpoint I disagree with as a veteran theater critic, although I must admit he makes a case for his position. \u00a0Plus, his opinion seems sincerely held, since Hummer clearly has never \u2013 sadly \u2013 been able to truly appreciate those plays or understand the appeal of the prolific Bard of Stratford-on-Avon.)<\/p>\n

Even if you disagree with that aspect, or others, of\u00a0Huemer\u2019s column,<\/a> it\u2019s as thought-provoking, well-argued, easy to read and full of intriguing and often maverick thinking as much of his other \u201cFaux Nous\u201d columns.<\/a><\/p>\n

OFTEN-REFERENCED PROMETHEUS-WINNING AUTHORS
\n<\/strong>Amid Prometheus Blog efforts to keep track of, comment on and highlight for our members and others, the many and various mentions of past Prometheus winners, Andersen isn’t mentioned much.<\/p>\n

These days, far more columns, essays, editorials and blogs prefer to concentrate on a handful of Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees in particular: most often, George Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty Four<\/a>;\u00a0<\/em>Ayn Rand\u2019s Atlas Shrugged<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and Ray Bradbury\u2019s Fahrenheit 451<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Interestingly, Orwell’s\u00a0Animal Farm <\/em><\/a>\u00a0 is less often cited in the popular press, perhaps partly because this animal fable – like Andersen’s fable – tends to be seen (falsely) as mere children’s literature.<\/p>\n

By my rough and impressionistic count, other past Prometheus winners are mentioned in the popular and mainstream cultural and political discourse somewhat less often than the above, but one can find and appreciate essays and articles referencing and echoing the themes of Robert Heinlein<\/a>, \u00a0J.R.R. Tolkien’s \u00a0The Lord of the Rings\u00a0<\/em>trilogy<\/a>, Kurt Vonnegut satirical and cautionary story \u201cHarrison Bergeron\u201d<\/a> and writer-actor Patrick McGoohan TV series \u201cThe Prisoner.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But in my view, Andersen\u2019s \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d deserves to be ranked much higher on the above lists.<\/p>\n

I’m proud LFS members had the vision to look more than a century back in time to recognize this classic, while going beyond the Hall of Fame’s traditional focus on novels to extend its scope to embrace fables – especially such a seminal one.<\/p>\n

As I wrote in my Prometheus Blog appreciation<\/a> of Anderson\u2019s 2000 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction: \u201cBecause political discourse routinely resorts to deception, euphemism, exaggeration and denial of reality, Andersen\u2019s fable sadly is destined to remain relevant for generations to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant elements of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch\u00a0 <\/strong>videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt and Heinlein-legacy representatives), Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, individuality and human dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg One of the best choices that LFS members have made in voting annually in the Best Classic Fiction category, in my opinion, was the decision to induct \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d in 2000 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame. Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s timeless anti-authoritarian parable isn\u2019t merely a fable for children but … Continue reading \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d \u2013 Andersen\u2019s fable remains a useful metaphor and illustrative lesson for today<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2423,1585],"tags":[167,595,2135,2136,59,2017,2134,268,68,288,879],"class_list":["post-6561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction-in-the-news","tag-ayn-rand","tag-best-classic-fiction","tag-casablanca","tag-cy-twombly","tag-george-orwell","tag-hans-christian-andersen","tag-michael-huemer","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-shakespeare","tag-the-emperors-new-clothes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-1HP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6561"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6580,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6561\/revisions\/6580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}