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Saturday, December 05, 2009
The Sublime Funk of Cornel West
For what it’s worth, here’s a bit of controversy (at Crooked Timber) over Cornel West’s latest, an autobiography: Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. Here’s a Facebook page for the book; and here’s an excerpt from it along with an interview with Matt Lauer. Here’s a paragraph from the excerpt:
But what does it mean to be a bluesman in the life of the mind? Like my fellow musicians, I’ve got to forge a unique style and voice that expresses my own quest for truth and love. That means following the quest wherever it leads and bearing whatever cost is required. I must break through isolated academic frameworks while, at the same time, I must build on the best of academic knowledge. I must fuel the fire of my soul so my intellectual blues can set others on fire. And most importantly, I must be a free spirit. I must unapologetically reveal my broken life as a thing of beauty.
And here’s another paragraph, on his quest for love, taken from this review (Scott McLemee at IHE):
The basic problem with my love relationships with women is that my standards are so high—and they apply equally to both of us. I seek full-blast mutual intensity, fully fledged mutual acceptance, full-blown mutual flourishing, and fully felt peace and joy with each other. This requires a level of physical attraction, personal adoration, and moral admiration that is hard to find. And it shares a depth of trust and openness for a genuine soul-sharing with a mutual respect for a calling to each other and to others. Does such a woman exist for me? Only God knows and I eagerly await this divine unfolding. Like Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship in Emily Bronte’s remarkable novel Wuthering Heights or Franz Schubert’s tempestuous piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat (D.960) I will not let life or death stand in the way of this sublime and funky love that I crave!
Comments
What’s the nature of the controversy? I don’t see one in the review, and I don’t want to read through 300 Crooked Timber comments.
Briefly: that mocking West over this book is racist.
West has jumped the shark. The man hasn’t accomplished anything of scholarly worth in I don’t know how long. He is a scholar. He is paid to be one. He should act like one.
"Briefly: that mocking West over this book is racist.”
Which is silly. West’s nosecone-shaped arc is *so* recognizably post-80’s that I can’t help thinking of the time I Googled “Flavor Flav”... and got a jpeg of the very guy in a Hogarthian embrace with Sylvester Stallone’s ex-wife. Flooding the ‘hood with crack was only one of The Man’s gambits, you see.
The frighteningly plausible irony being that West may gets tons of _____ as a righteous reaction to Scott’s take-down. West may finally find that higher (undergraduate) love. The rest of us will have to wait for the reincarnation of Aimé Césaire.
Oh crap. Wrong url for my website…
I take it that means he’s available?
If you’re up to the sublime funk of it all, yes. Just take a number and stand in line.