People remember history with more passion than precision. The story of Billy the Kid, as the outlaw William Bonney is called, has been mythologised more than most. There used to be a museum in White’s City, New Mexico, with a sign that read: “We don’t have the gun that killed Billy the Kid. Two other museums have it.” In the course of a “cattle war” in Lincoln County, New Mexico, around 1880, Bonney murdered at least nine people – 21 if you get your history from Woody Guthrie’s ballads – but in the American historical imagination he retains a romantic glow.
人們更多地是用激情、而非真相來(lái)銘記歷史。比利小子(Billy the Kid)——歹徒威廉?邦尼(William Bonney)的綽號(hào)——的故事比大多數(shù)故事更具傳奇色彩。在新墨西哥的白色之城(White’s City)，曾經(jīng)有一個(gè)博物館的告示牌上寫(xiě)著：“我們沒(méi)有殺死比利小子的槍，另外兩個(gè)博物館有?！痹?880年前后發(fā)生在新墨西哥林肯縣的“牧牛戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)”中，邦尼至少殺死了9人——如果你是從伍迪?格思里(Woody Guthrie)的民歌中了解這段歷史，那就是21個(gè)人——但在美國(guó)的歷史形象中，邦尼保留著浪漫主義色彩。