Reference to Melville’s God
Took me 47 years to note this reference.
In the fabulous storm scene where Leslie Nielsen’s Paul Jenson fully loses his shit and decides to rape young Beth Hughes, he first roars at the heavens — mocking our conventional deity — and then declares his allegiance to “Melville’s God,” who would urge him to “take what’s his.”
Admitting that I know nothing about Herman Melville other than his reputation as a great 20th century novelist, I do read that the author in fact held “an agonized conviction of the cruelty and malice of God.” Can anyone expound on this?