It’s all in here

More than the Pequot, the Fidéle is the model of twitter. The Confidence Man even traipses around in sockpuppet accounts— dumby accounts— in the end you find that he is everyone— everyone is The Confidence Man.

One of the main incarnations of the Confidence Man is a man in black face who everyone believes is actually a black man. He is named the Black Guinea— a black guinea is a counterfeit coin.

PT Barnum is compared to Emerson & the Transcendentalists— selling THINGS YOU CANT BELIEVE— Melville allies himself with the Cynics, Timon, the Pessimists— who are ruthlessly hounded on board by the Confidence Man.

I never realized until this time reading it that China Aster was a reference to the Astor family’s fortune made running Opium to China.