not you trop. you’re handy and you hate your mom, but no douchebag. i count you an ally. you will make the cut. i could clean you up little. i have yet to truly game with you. ask one who knows. patience my dear. patience…
psst …satyr…here’s my card. trop is small time.
she, any excuse to say ass five times. yeh bby 
Very true, but my father much more. Both of them are morons.
Oh goody! Shall we flip a coin or would you like to go first? I’ll even play into the wind to give you the advantage.
This sucks big-time.
This spoke to me. This was one of my very favorite stories as a child… honestly, I think that I carried this tale through my life as the facade of junior high transformed into the more adult version of superficiality in the suburbs. Others mask themselves in their own lies and our insecurities buy into it until we wake up one day and see it for what it is. The illusion of happiness; the illusion of contentment, popularity, beauty; success. It is when we have the life experience to strip away our fears and be our naked selves – the power of eliminating so much expectation in ourselves and worse, so much expectation of those around us. Being who we truly are is the greatest challenge, but ultimately the greatest reward.
Thank you for posting it.
Yeah, thanks. Sorry to get off topic. Blame Detrop.
She, the emperor, he’s ALWAYS naked. Even when he’s dressed, he’s naked underneath. He’s got dirty parts rubbing together as he walks and we all play along as if he’s regal. His life is folly itself. All life is follly. All beliefs, customs, traditions, moods, motivations, routines, actions, diversions, friendships, religions…they are all the emperor’s new clothes in varying degree. And thank god for those clothes. If there’s one thing I’ve learned here, the only thing keeping us from being truly naked in this universe is nothingness in disguise. The society bleeds over into our minds. We are inclined to fool the mobbing factions in ourselves. Sure, call out the more obvious examples, but never self-righteously.
Detrop, I’m a little afraid of you. So let’s cut to the chase. You win.
Yeah, I sorta stepped away from the metaphor a little…
that bit about showing my ass implies I think it’s covered normally, doesn’t it?
Like I admitted elsewhere… I’m a sort of MUD…
but is the MUD phenomenon the same as the “emperor’s new clothes” phenomenon?
Can one aspire to be like the kid, and maintain MUD-ness, in good conscience? Is there a good reason to be a MUD, which does not conflict with being the kid?
I mean… we may all be naked emperors in reality… but none of us say “we’re actually /this way/” … we all pretend we can see those clothes… (with a few exceptions)… maybe in fear of the consequences of no longer pretending… I mean… unless we all stop pretending at once, there’s going to be major conflict involved.
The words “nobody wants to see your ass” come to mind.
Is aspiring to be like the kid, a sort of… uh… utopian b.s. thing? I don’t think so. Nothin’ good ever came easy.
I think the saddest thing about the whole thing is when people just give up trying to be real… so they go to the opposite extreme… try to be the best fakes… and make fun of other fakes who aren’t convincing… it’s sad.
I’m a fake! I admit it! But, I’d rather be the kid.
A desire to conform or pretend is an authentic human trait. I have always been reluctant to accept the convention “be yourself” battle cry. It is rarely not loaded with specific dogmas. What if being myself means behaving like the king? I think the real lesson here is the wisdom not to judge the king or the people. We’re all doing the best we can. We peacocks, we slithering protoplasms. We are not a far cry from those emoticons to my left. That pretty much sums who we are. Cute little guys, aren’t they? Cut them some slack, let’s.
I pity the emperor and myself. So many jokes we fail to laugh at because we happen to be the butt of them.
I would like to rewrite the story with a different ending. The Emperor becomes enlightened and though he cotinues his procession naked, he has a big grin on his face since he has seen through not only his own pretensions, but those of everyone else who were complicit in the facade.
He would also make the boy and the scoundrels his chief advisors and be remembered as the wisest ruler that ever held the throne. He would also conduct all his business in the nude and laugh alot.
What is funnier than a King marching about nude in public, believing he is adorned by his kingdoms finest finery is actually a Slave marching about fully clothed in his best outfit believing he is nude and that the others are admiring his …endowments, when they are merely admiring his clothes.
I am not sure if I was drawn as a kid to the moral of the story or just the idea of a man being completely naked… Yup.
Even at ten, I loved that.
Gamer… yeah… I’m catchin’ your drift… the kid wasn’t judging anybody… and what does it mean to be real for a human being who can’t just act on instinct?.. which is why we have technological advances… and the arts… and… philosophy… But clearly there are distinctions to be made between the kid and all others in the story (maybe we wouldn’t see them if we were more like the kid, though?)… and is it not an ‘authentic human trait’ to make such distinctions? Yeah… I think there is much to be admired in that kid. Your king thing… I hadn’t thought of it within the context of this story… I’ll think on it.
ert, cool idea about adapting the story… I would change the tailors into well-intentioned friends from his childhood… he’s used to them always pullin’ shit like that, which is why he doesn’t take it so hard… But, how about the people? Are they going to become nudists? lol
Satyr… yeh… sorta self-agrandizing (sp?) to say, “Look at me! Look how amazingly real I am!!!” and sort of a walking contradiction… sort of an emperor… the kid… was not like that at all… nothin’ to prove…
Bessy… that’s funny… I admit it… I kinda wondered if being the page holding the imaginary mantle was an interesting job… hehehe.