Holding up a mirror...

[Terrance]

Tim Strzechowski wrote:
> 
> >
> > But CM is not morally ambiguous.
> 
> Well, is CM "Christ" or "Satan"??
> 
> I see moral ambiguity.

That's Good, Man. You're supposed to see it. 
Melville didn't invent Ambiguity but he sure moved it down river. 

Christ or Satan? 

These are but Allegorical figures. But Allegorical thinking is of no use
to us. 
The novel is a con game. Just like Pale Fire. We will never solve the
identity puzzle. 
Christ or Satan? Good Man. Bad Man. Goodman? Who is the Good Man? Who is
Goodman? Who was saved? 
Once we realize that Melville's method is a con game, that we have been
invited to play too, the satire on American Confidence and Gullibility
becomes a game. Is that the mirror turned on the reader? On reading? Are
we Melville's victims? Pynchon's victims? Has McHale got it right? Or
are we his co-creators? 
I'm not sure about Pynchon or Nabokov, but for Melville, a creator is a
doubter.