The Emperor has no Clothes

Looking along the library shelves at Highclere, I find myself dithering as to which book to pull out first. As well as books on history, famous people, explorers, buildings, art and culture, there are so many novels and stories.

 In past centuries not everyone could or had been taught to read or write, thus stories were once nearly always read out loud. In contrast, these days reading is a solitary experience. We either read silently to ourselves or listen to stories on audible. Nevertheless, I still remember my father reading to us as children though it was usually something of his choice rather than ours: something from the Jungle Book or Aesop’s Fables or a story by Hans Christian Andersen. Happily, these books are still tucked away on various shelves. Leafing through them today, I am always struck by the quality of the beautifully coloured illustrations they all contain. That is of course what I look for first!!

Hans Christian Andersen (1805 –1875) was a Danish author. Originally from a poor background he managed to break into the literary world and wrote plays, novels, and poems but he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales, all 156 of them. They are all quite informal, relaxed and amusing, neither stilted nor overtly educational, though they by no means all end happily which is what we seem to prefer from our fairytales on the silver screen today. 
His appearance was rather odd so success on the stage or dance or as a singer was likely to elude him. His dream was to be an opera singer, but he was described as “lanky and awkward, with a big nose, huge hands and feet with a poor crackly voice” so that was not to be, but it drove him to find other ways to be successful. In some ways, his story of the ugly duckling could be a metaphor for the author himself.

He was an excellent listener and had a great memory for plays and books. Part of his genius was that his fables had such imaginative strength and bowled along so smoothly that they appeared as if they were old folklore stories and legends passed down the centuries rather than new works.

The stories appeal not just to children but to the child in all of us. They share truths and how to see things unclouded by the conventions of adulthood. To my mind, one of the most amusing and embarrassing is the one titled “The Emperor has no Clothes” which is the fable of the ultimate con artists.  

“One day, two fellows calling themselves weavers came to town. They said that they knew how to weave cloth of the most beautiful colours and patterns. The clothes made from this wonderful cloth would be invisible to everyone who was unfit for the job he held, or who was very simple in character.”

Excited by such a prospect, the king gave them money and the finest silks and gold thread. Showered with every luxury, the weavers span out their stay pretending to be very busy. The courtiers would arrive in turn to see the wonderful garments and, fearing to be seen as inadequate and unworthy of their positions, would admire them and report back to the Emperor about how marvellous they were. Eventually, the Emperor insisted on having his new clothes and was ceremoniously dressed in his new “garments” before parading in front of his subjects. It took a child to shout the truth: “But the Emperor has nothing at all on”, exposing the illusion and the weavers for the charlatans that they were.   

It is a great story about a collective delusion -  believing in something because everyone else does as well. Today, we face a barrage of fakes, often due to AI manipulation or unscrupulous reporting by those who present only the facts to suit their own purpose and it is sometimes almost impossible to tell what is real and what isn’t. You can no longer wholly trust what you see or hear in the news and certainly not what you see in social media. Scandals and lawsuits over deep fakes are becoming ever more prevalent. 

I have the same fears about the “invisible” so called currencies. For me, the various forms of crypto currencies whirl around computer trails like white puffs from an airplane in the sky. They lack the stability of a value backed currency, thus they are not a currency but essentially a gamble on thin air. Furthermore, all these platforms absorb energy resources equivalent to the electrical use of a country such as the Netherlands and needs masses of water all of which perhaps could be put to better use. 

 Will this be the South Sea Bubble or Tulip Mania of our age? Only time will tell. However, if you ask a child whether they would prefer a £10 note or non-fungible crypto token or code which they cannot see, I know what they would answer.