Tabs

Klosterman: 17 of 23


You are sitting in an empty bar (in a town you’ve
never before visited), drinking Bacardi with a soft-spoken acquaintance
you barely know. After an hour, a third individual walks into the
tavern and sits by himself, and you ask your acquaintance who the new
man is. “Be careful of that guy,” you are told. “He is a man with a
past.” A few minutes later, a fourth person enters the bar; he also sits
alone. You ask your acquaintance who this new individual is. “Be
careful of that guy, too,” he says. “He is a man with no past.”

Which of these two people do you trust less?

I'd trust the man with no past less. What kind of character has no past? Everybody's got a story, even if their story is unconscionably boring. For this guy to have no past at all, I assume that there is a reason for that. Perhaps, he's erased it for a reason. For all I know he could be an assassin, or Tupac in disguise. Either way, I'd rather deal with the guy with a past.

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