"David Gerrold - The emperor redux" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gerrold David)

town square, "Gosh, Dad -- look! The emperor is bloody starkers!"

The lad's father, embarrassed, tried to explain to him that this was an imaginary suit, but the child refused to
understand. "The emperor is naked!" he insisted. "He's got no clothes at all." And all the people heard, and
looked, and saw indeed that the emperor was naked, and they were embarrassed -- embarrassed for the
child's father. Because the child had proven by his very words that he had no sense of wonder. And in this
kingdom the people had a special word to describe those without the sense to wonder; they were called
fools. How sad for the poor father.

Only a fool could fail to realize that an emperor never stands naked in front of his subjects without good
reason. Even naked, the emperor still wore the finest suit of clothes ever made: the suit that God had given
him the day that he was born. And nothing more, no additional adornment could be added to it that would
make it any prettier. If anything, adornment would only detract from the majesty of God's creation.

And for those who wanted and needed to see dazzling raiment, the emperor wore the cloth of imagination, a
cloth that costs nothing at all and is free to everyone; they need only close their eyes to see a glorious suit of
clothes finer than any that the human hand could make.

All the people loved and honored the emperor for having the courage to be naked in the world, without
hypocrisy, without pretense, and for respecting the people enough to recognize that each one had his own
special vision of the best, needing only a bit of wonder to exercise that vision. He was a very fine emperor
indeed.

And the little boy? Well, yes, he really was a fool, for not realizing the beauty of the human body, nor the
wonder of the human imagination. He was taken to a home for the bewildered and stuffed full of honey-bread
and jam and then tickled till he giggled in delight, because what else can you do with a fool?