Posting much too late, but about the Emperor’s New Clothes: I had always interpreted the story to mean not that people stopped believing in the clothes when the little boy spoke out, but that it hadn’t quite crossed people’s minds until that moment that whether or not the King was clothed, he appeared naked to that boy, and that wasn’t how things should be. Everyone laughs because they think, I too can see the nakedness of the King; only then do they realise that their neighbour can also see it, and only after that do they see that there are no clothes to see.
Posting much too late, but about the Emperor’s New Clothes: I had always interpreted the story to mean not that people stopped believing in the clothes when the little boy spoke out, but that it hadn’t quite crossed people’s minds until that moment that whether or not the King was clothed, he appeared naked to that boy, and that wasn’t how things should be. Everyone laughs because they think, I too can see the nakedness of the King; only then do they realise that their neighbour can also see it, and only after that do they see that there are no clothes to see.