a conversation last night turned, as conversations with me are wont, to con men.  it had never occurred to me that grifters might honestly enjoy occupying the characters that they play, really feeling the emotions of someone else – a ‘method’ approach to the con, as p termed it – but the idea reminded me of the lesson of simon lovell.  “if you feel sorry, you are dead in the water.”  con artists routinely profess that really manipulating someone requires total emotional shutdown, divorcing yourself from the sort of empathy that psychologists use to define normal human interaction.  i wonder if it’s possible to close yourself off this much, or if we’re all doomed to be slightly failed con men, and all the more beautifully human for it.