HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN AND THE SOFT POWER OF THE FOLK-TALE
Sometimes, quite by chance, we stumble upon a story or a statement or an article in a periodical, and suddenly things that have perplexed us come into sharper focus. It has happened fairly frequently in my life. The most recent example is a folk-tale I found while perusing the book lists of fiction for children on Amazon. It is a story I recall from my own childhood, and I’m confident the same could be said of many of us: The Emperor’s New Clothes, first published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. Though that is a mere 188 years from the current moment, hardly of much consequence in the history of literature, this particular story has staying power and is not immediately replicable in another version of the tale even though Andersen had been inspired by a number of prior examples. It is, in fact, merely a charming children’s story, but — of course — there are quite a number of those which remain in the consciousness of the listener or reader long after a brief, early encounter which could suggest that “merely” is an inadequate descriptor.
I think it stands out in my own memory not only as a charming and diverting child’s bedtime story but also because it is a powerful story. It has multiple dimensions. And on at least one level, it is a potent critique of societal pressures and an example of the potential of literature to speak truth to power. And since that power derives from the printed page, it certainly qualifies as “soft” power because it does not rely upon brute physical force to convey its perspective on human folly and human weakness. Particularly in the context of today’s political environment in the United States, the written word can communicate a special intensity precisely because it has intellectual and emotional forcefulness and does not rely upon the physical aspects of the kind of conflict which is all too prevalent on our planet. Particularly when it is humorous, it does far more than entertain; it enchants while simultaneously enriching our lives.
The story itself is simple enough. A monarch (king or emperor or some version of a person of similar rank) is very vain and obsessed with fashion and thus can be manipulated by people with an agenda that may not be immediately apparent to a ruler or his staff. In this instance, a number of untrustworthy tailors (basically, swindlers) promise to produce an extraordinarily beautiful garment, the kind that would be fit only for a king or an emperor. They proceed with this charade even when observed up-close by the curious (including the ruler himself). And somehow the lie that the tailors are producing anything at all, much less a truly extraordinary wardrobe, persists. The king, not wishing to appear to be slow-witted, naïve or incompetent plays along with the fiction which in turn leads others to do the same. Finally, when the garment is ready, the tailors come to see the king bringing the imaginary clothing with them so as to carefully dress him for public display in an official parade of notable people from all corners of the kingdom. Unbelievable as it might seem, no one — not in the court or in the public at large — is willing to admit that the whole spectacle is an elaborate fiction. On the contrary, he is complimented profusely on his style; everyone pretends to see what’s not there. Perhaps this is the result of the way humans developed over time. To survive, they evolved means of protecting themselves which included a strong pull to fit in and be part of the pack. Over time, this could very well have led to a tendency to deny one’s true feelings instead of listening to them. But, in the end, it was a mere child in a large crowd of observers at the event, a little boy with no discernable influence whatever, who refused to deny the reality of the scene and stepped forward to announce publicly that “the king isn’t wearing anything at all!” This one comment from a child breaks the townspeople out of their complacency so that they finally admit that the clothes simply aren’t there. It is easy to see the impact the immediate discovery that their very own monarch is completely naked in front of a huge crowd of people would have had upon his subjects. After all, they’d been sworn to silence no matter what they observed. But now the cat was truly out of the bag. The gig was up. The lie was there for anyone to see. It is unlikely any ruler could survive such an embarrassment, particularly in light of the deliberate hoax which had caused it, but we are left to fill in the blank and imagine the true end of the story. After all, a true work of art does not require a lot of additional commentary to succeed.
But the larger point is that this denouement to the narrative leads us to consider specific societal pressures, the role they can play in shaping an entire community, the dangerous consequences of failing to speak truth to power, and what happens when people with influence are allowed to get away with lies, corruption and inaction. And all of this results from the fear of standing up, seizing reality, and breaking ranks with one’s friends, neighbors, and business associates. It invites the reader or listener to imagine what this kind of unchecked power could bring about and how it could prove long-lasting. When political figures in any society are more concerned with preserving their status within their kinship or hierarchical grouping than they are with truth or integrity, the silence allows corruption, dishonesty, and abuse of power to fester and go unchallenged, eroding public trust and harming the larger society. When people fail to call out falsehoods and corrupt behavior, it sends a very dangerous message — that truth doesn’t matter, that power can be abused without consequence. It undermines the whole of the democratic process because without truth, informed decision-making becomes impossible. Just imagine a society in which the various groups seeking power cannot agree about what is true or false. Certainly, we do not wish to consider it, because the consequences are too horrible to contemplate —- it would create a totally unworkable, unstable environment weakened unto death because all that is sustaining it is a populace prone to accept any and every abuse that comes down the pike which has the potential to undermine society in fundamental ways. But, as Andersen points out at the end of the tale, truth cannot remain hidden forever. And that should give us hope.
Given the times we are living through in our country at this moment, it is natural to latch onto any hint of a possible resolution of the contentious struggles that are pulling us apart. Sometimes, under such circumstances it is better to at least hold onto hope itself, the dream of an end to our infernal combativeness, because hope can be the beginning of the end of stresses that are overwhelming us. This seems to me to be preferable to simply going on giving into the power of forces over which we (seemingly) have little control. Humor is one thing that can provide hope. Satire is a related one. Brutal honesty points to a possible lancing of the boil that is plaguing us. I don’t know about you, but the very least I can do about all of this at the moment is to make Christmas gifts of copies of Andersen’s powerful {albeit “soft power”} tale and give them to my grandchildren and other persuadable people I happen to know. There may well be another courageous kid out there who’s willing to stand up and say, “This is nonsense! Take a long hard look at what’s going on here! We can’t continue to lie about what constitutes reality when it is staring us in the face!”
Fr. Greg
Sources:
baptistnews.com/article/the-emperors-new-clothes-speaking-truth-to-power
snowwhitewrites.com/emperors-new-clothes
melliobrien.com/embracing-authenticity-and-courage
Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes, E.M. Hale & Co. (Houghton Mifflin), Eau Claire, WI, 1949