The Emperor's New Clothes

[raefinlay]

Sometimes, reading "literary" fiction, I feel like the child at the edge of the crowd. I watch the emperor parade by in his fancy carriage, holding himself in proud posture purely by his elitist will, listening to the adoring but vacuous cheering. I'm the only one pointing out the fact that he's NEKKID as a brand new baby. (But stoopider-looking.)

Ok, let me back up a bit. I just read a short story in a consumer mag known for its literary fiction. (I won't tell you which one, but it starts with a "New" and ends in a "Yorker.") And I wanted to pour kerosene all over its formless, existential wallowing. *pyro*

Can't people see the nakedness here? How long until we have the nerve to point and laugh appropriately?

Comments

[aaron-mag.livejournal.com]

Interesting debate. I'm half asian and I thought the movie was hilarious.

I wouldn't say it was trying to tap into the humor of foreign culture. It was showing the isolation you can feel when traveling alone. It was also showing how quickly bonds can form and how quickly we can claim ownership over each other. Bill Murray's character, for example, was married. And he ended up sleeping with some singer. Yet the feeling of betrayal was not to his wife, but to this girl half his age who he'd just met a couple days ago. In that short amount of time they had become romantically linked in this weird and twisted non sexual way.

Same with when his wife is faxing him stuff from home and sending him carpet samples. That has nothing to do with asian culture and everything to do with the feeling of isolation from your home. You are in another world. Since I travel alot for work I can partially relate. There have been plenty of times on the phone when I wanted to yell, "Honey! I don't give a damn! Paint it purple for all I care. I'm trying to earn a living out here!!!"

But when you get home you're back in the groove. You're back into the homelife. Then you really do care about the color of your study.

So for me it was a commentary about distance and how our physical surroundings become 'our reality of the moment'...