I'm really up too late, but before I go to bed, a poll

[conuly]

Poll #21330

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54

View Respondents

Emperor Norton I

View Answers

Harmlessly delusional
30 (55.6%)

Merely engaged in a long-running piece of performance art
24 (44.4%)

Comments

[jack]

I think the answer is often somewhere between, that someone who has a much lower resistance than normal to seeing themselves as the emperor of the US, is sometimes more likely to play up to people's enjoyment of the concept. Like, maybe he veered back and forth between accepting it at face value and thinking he was exaggerating and was never forced to pin himself down one way or the other.

[redbird]

✓ Other: Found a role in life that gave him enough to live on

Enough people in San Francisco didn't just say "yeah, he's crazy, but it's harmless, leave him alone," they gave him meals in their restaurants in exchange for his banknotes.

[melannen]

you didn't include an option for 'actually the emperor'!

[wpadmirer]

I had to look him up. I had no idea who he was.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Direct action arts funding, no grant required.

[havocthecat]

Either way, pretty awesome?

[l33tminion]

A Saint Second Class, spiritual founder of the Joshua Norton Cabal, truly someone who makes you question whether there really is a difference between "delusion", "reality", and "long-running elaborate joke"!

[spikethemuffin]

You. I like you.

[spikethemuffin]

1. Could be both;
2. We don't know that he was harmless, predatory behavior being the norm of the day.

[movingfinger]

But he was neither---he was the Emperor!

[conuly]

If I'd done that I wouldn't have gotten any meaningful results.

[conuly]

DEFINITELY a badass.

[conuly]

And now you know :)

[conuly]

2. True, but an insight that's not really in the spirit of the thing (unless you happen to have some unfortunate anecdotes, I suppose).

[melannen]

But you still didn't get any meaningful results - you didn't include the correct answer! 

(I really do think of him the same way I think of the more harmless micronations - the only way to become a real Emperor is to declare yourself one, and not be defeated by any challengers. AFAIK, Emperor Norton meets both criteria. So for me to answer this poll, I would have to decide whether a real emperor is made up more of performance art or delusion! Difficult to say, probably depends on the Emperor.)

[dhampyresa]

whether a real emperor is made up more of performance art or delusion! Difficult to say, probably depends on the Emperor

It amuses me that we have a more definite answer about this for Augustus than Norton.

[melannen]

Is Augustus performance art? I'm not as well read up on that era as others.

(I think a lot of them start as performance art and end as delusion; except the ones that go the other way; but sometimes they are all delusion; and sometimes they are all art. Emperor Norton almost comes back around to being neither by way of being so honestly nothing but.)

[archangelbeth]

I am sad that there was not an option for "OUR ONCE AND FUTURE EMPEROR".

Edit: Maybe it should have been a separate ticky-box. O;D

[siderea]

I was just unhappy that it was a forced choice – why not both? But "Emperor" is also a good option.

[alatefeline]

How do I answer ‘lived, by choice or not, in a reality adjacent to but mutually fictional with history as I understand it ‘?

[conuly]

Noted, but let's presume he wasn't.

[conuly]

He doesn't have a sword gifted to him by some woman in a puddle.

[conuly]

If I'd put "Emperor" on the list then everybody would've chosen "Emperor".

[conuly]

Flip a coin?

[siderea]

Nu?

[conuly]

I didn't want everybody to choose Emperor! I wanted them to make a 100% arbitrary and pointless decision.

[siderea]

So you're saying that deciding to endorse Norton I as the rightful emperor of th US is not a pointless and arbitrary decision?

[conuly]

Yes.

[archangelbeth]

Are we sure?

[spikethemuffin]

Yes, I suppose not, and I apologize, but as an unsuccessful author and successful muse, my mind goes buzzing in a thousand different directions when you mention Joshua Norton. Dark Emperor Norton? Tutelary deity Emperor Norton? Possessed by a fragment of the ghost of Constantine Emperor Norton? Timeslipped Emperor Norton from 2300 where Silicon Valley controls the world and Google Timeslip malfunctions? Canny politician? Displaced fairy? It has so much potential.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Insufficient data for a meaningful answer. Did any of the people who knew him personally ever express their opinions about him in writing? I've never heard that he had any known family, but he's not my area of expertise.

LOL, as a lifelong SCAdian and fantasy/SF fan, I can definitely say that the line between harmless delusion and long-term performance art is thin, blurry, and sometimes non-existent. There's a Borderland in between, and a surprising number of people live there.

Yo, speaking of up-too-late, and the fluid boundaries between fantasy and reality, check this out:

Can't Sleep Kid


(Most of the commenters seem to be superstitious morons who've watched too many horror movies. Diagnosis is at 32:06 if you want to cut to the chase.)

[conuly]

Reading YT comments? Bad idea.