'Pi' Question

[The Great Quail]

>I watched 'pi' again last night.  Does Max Cohen reach nirvana or is he the 
>victim of a self-lobotomy? (or are they one and the same)
>the ending is very ambigious.  His smile at the end can be construed both 

PI SPOILER BELOW

I particulary enjoy the ambiguity of this movie, which at times reminds 
me of Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" or the Pyncher's "Crying of Lot 49" in 
that *both* explanations (Projected/Spurious "Meaning" vs. 
Internal/Secret *Meaning*) will fit the set of facts the viewer/reader is 
presented with. Is Max Cohen ("Ultimate Priest?") really insane, merely 
trying to project order onto a chaotic universe; or is he really onto 
something, perhaps coming near an understanding of the cosmic code? The 
movie leaves you hanging; including the ending. Rather than commit to one 
view of the movie, I believe that, like in the Eco and Pynchon books, 
*both* views must be held simultaneously, their mutual exclusivity 
calling our very apprehension of the universe into question.

To me, the biggest question about "Pi" is: What the hell are the ants all 
about? Are they manifestations of doubt, chaous, or occult intelligence? 
Are they "bugs" in the machinery of the universe? Or does Max just leave 
a lot of sandwiches laying around his apartment? 

--Quail

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The Great Quail, Keeper of the Libyrinth:
http://www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth

"Countlessness of livestories have netherfallen by this plage, flick as 
flowflakes, litters from aloft, like a waast wizzard all of whirlworlds. 
Now are all tombed to the mound, isges to isges, erde from erde . . . 
(Stoop) if you are abcedminded, to this claybook, what curious of signs 
(please stoop) in this allaphbed! Can you rede (since We and Thou had it 
out already) its world? . . . Speak to us of Emailia!"
         --James Joyce, Finnegans Wake