Legal Commentary

Cornel West, Celebrity Narcissist

By David Bernstein

Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed:

If sketchy in other regards, Brother West is never anything but expansive on how Cornel West feels about Cornel West. He is deeply committed to his committed-ness, and passionately passionate about being full of passion. Various works of art, literature, music, and philosophy remind West of himself. He finds Augustinian humility to be deeply meaningful. This is mentioned in one sentence. His taste for three-piece suits is full of subtle implications that require a couple of substantial paragraphs to elucidate....

?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!?

.... Rendered more or less speechless, I pointed the passage out to my wife.

She looked it over and said, ?Any woman who reads this needs to run in the opposite direction when she sees him coming.?

Returning to the book, I found, just a few pages later, that West was getting divorced for a fourth time. Seldom does reader response yield results that prove so empirically verifiable.

Ouch!  H/T Instapundit.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on December 03, 2009 (boomark / email).