In terms of literary works about an honor-shame culture, Faulkner's novels about the honor-shame culture of the Old South come in far behind the Homeric epics about ancient honor-shame culture, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY. In the opening episode of the Homeric epic the ILIAD, King Achilles, the most formidable warrior around, is disrespected by King Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the thousand ships that set sail to retrieve Helen from Troy. Agamemnon's disrespect for Achilles triggers the wrath of Achilles. The ILIAD in its entirety is devoted to telling the lengthy story of the wrath of Achilles. Because of his sheer power as a warrior, Achilles could have dispatched Agamemnon. Indeed, Achilles starts to draw his sword to dispatch Agamemnon on the spot when the goddess Athena intervenes, unseen, and forcibly stops Achilles by grabbing his long hair and pulling him back. She tell Achilles not to dispatch Agamemnon, but to give him a sound tongue lashing. Achilles complies and gives Agamemnon a sound tongue lashing instead of killing him on the spot. As a result, Agamemnon gets to have his way. But Achilles in his wrath withdraws from the war.
Nowhere in the ILIAD is there a hint that Achilles was wrong. His anger is justified anger. By the standards of the time, Agamemnon had misbehaved when he disrespected Achilles. Athena does not tell him that he is wrong to get angry at Agamemnon. Nor does Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis, tell him that he is wrong. Nor does any other character in the story, except of course Agamemnon. Nor does the omniscient narrator tell us that Achilles is wrong to get angry at the way in which Agamemnon disrespected him.
Of course Agamemnon had first disrespected the priest of Apollo. For this, Apollo intervenes and Agamemnon pays a price. Eventually, Agamemnon comes to recognize that he was wrong in disrespecting the priest of Apollo and wrong in disrespecting Achilles. The priest of Apollo accepts Agamemnon's gifts of repentance. But Achilles continues to hold out and refuses to accept the gifts of repentance that Agamemnon offers him.
Next, for the sake of discussion, let's say that Barack Obama does not come from the African American tradition of living and loving out loud that Cornel West comes from. But President Obama does have an unflappable demeanor, as does the old black man in Faulkner's INTRUDER IN THE DUST. So what will likely happen when a fellow who is used to living and loving out loud interacts with a fellow who has such an unflappable demeanor? Isn't it likely that the fellow who is used to living and loving out loud will be nonplussed, to say the least, by the fellow who has such an unflappable demeanor? Conversely, isn't it likely that the fellow who has such an unflappable demeanor will be nonplussed, to say the least, by the fellow who is used to living and loving out loud?
In any event, Melissa Harris-Perry of Princeton University has accused Cornel West in print of engaging in a pissing match with President Obama. In my 1998 essay "Faulkner and Male Agonism," I have discussed male agonistic (contesting) behavior. A pissing match is a kind of male agonistic (contesting) behavior. My essay was published in the book TIME, MEMORY, AND THE VERBAL ARTS: ESSAYS ON THE THOUGHT OF WALTER ONG, edited by Dennis L. Weeks and Jane Hoogestraat (1998, pages 203-221).
If we believe Cornel West, he is not in the wrong. President Obama has evidently acted like an ungrateful lout toward him. In revenge, he could sit out his 2012 re-election campaign, just as Achilles sits out the war for a long time.
However, in the end, Achilles does re-join the war, even though he has been told by his mother-goddess that doing so will lead to his death in the war. Incidentally, the anonymous author of the Gospel of Mark constructed his fictional story about Jesus to portray him as a hero on a par with Achilles by constructing three fictional scenes in which Jesus predicts in advance his death in Jerusalem. Jesus is portrayed as knowing in advance that he will die in Jerusalem, just as Achilles knows in advance from his goddess-mother that he will die if he returns to the war. Understood figuratively, we often do need to die to an old version of ourselves in order to rise to a new version of ourselves. I hope that Cornel West will die, figuratively speaking, to Cornel West who has published his criticisms of President Obama (with the collaboration of Chris Hedges) and rise to campaign for him in his re-election campaign. In short, Cornel West may have been disrespected by President Obama. But this gives Cornel West the opportunity to forgive President Obama. However, Cornel West might want to make sure that President Obama does not forget that he has wronged him. Forgive, but don't forget, eh?
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