Scott Johnson

So I wound up reading a lot of the thousand and one

Knight's book because he was so well-versed in those stories that they informed his understanding of himself, his understanding of the world, and then they also informed the scam.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there was this huge kind of sprawling universe of stories that he was totally embedded in.

And so the con

such as it was, existed, you know, in this kind of larger context of stories.

And so I found myself, you know, getting drawn into his world of stories.

Kahn was kind of embedded in these, you know, in this whole sort of sprawling universe of stories and myths and, yeah, half-truths and delusions and, you know,

and movies he'd seen and books he'd read and stories that he'd concocted himself, like literally stories that he'd written or dreams he'd had.

And so the whole thing became a kind of an exercise in

in trying to figure out, well, which which of these stories is real, which is total delusion or fantasy?

How do they relate to each other?

How do they influence each other?

And and what does all of that say about about about the con, but also just about him and then about, you know, at an even more kind of meta level about this conversation that he and I were having?

Like, was this just another

story that he was telling was he was he using me you know was he like what was going on and and that that so so ultimately that's kind of where i landed at the end of all these conversations was just feeling like i was in this kind of kaleidoscopic alice in wonderland alternate universe peopled with with the the characters of his fiction of his imagination and and his

and his sort of fantastical life.

And it was a very strange place to find myself.

It was very strange to suddenly be, to feel like I was inhabiting his imagination in a way.

But as a writer, it was great material because he would like,

He would just tell me these absolutely wonderful stories about trips he'd taken and people he'd met and what it meant for him and his development as a person.