The romance of the grift.

some late thoughts about that Elizabeth Holmes profile

One of the most romantic scenes in any movie: the opening of Trouble in Paradise, in which “the Baron” (really, thief Gaston Monescu) and a high society woman (really, con artist Lily, no last name given) meet for an assignation and slowly unmask each other as crooks, mutually picking each other’s pockets, delighting in both falling into each other’s traps and trapping each other.¹

It’s hard not to love a story of a conman in love, since it lets fears of vulnerability, giving too much away, being had, the reality of professed and avowed feelings, etc, play out on a double level. One of the tensions in Trouble in Paradise is whether Gaston will leave this more complicated relationship for a simpler, more straightforward seduction. He certainly considers it.… But I won’t tell you how he chooses.

But if one were to say—as I am about to say—most (all?) real con m…