LATE: I Am a God

I'm starting to enjoy the way that the Greek myths we discuss on this blog allow some comedic relief from the absolutely depressing cruelty that tends to be characteristic of the Biblical stories. Echo and Narcissus is the story of two inconveniently beautiful people being punished for such. The perfect justice, really (not really). To summarize what seems to be a usually overcomplicated story, Echo is a nymph with a beautiful voice, who Hera curses (as Hera is wont to do) to only be able to repeat the last words said. Echo tries to win the heart of a beautiful man, Narcissus, but Narcissus rejects her, and in her sadness Echo prays to Aphrodite to make her disappear, until only her voice is left. Narcissus, meanwhile, comes across his own reflection in a river, and becomes so enamored with it (I guess Ancient Greece didn't have mirrors?) that he refuses to move from the spot. Narcissus starves there, and becomes a flower. A whole species of flower, all at once.

I'm going to rip off one of my classmate's ideas for this section, and I hope they'll forgive me. That is, I'd like to talk about a "narcissist" I admire, Kanye West. However, whereas my classmate seemed to focus more on Kanye's narcissism, which is a certainly a very easy and fun thesis to prove, I'd like to focus more on why he is so admirable. Kanye certainly thinks highly of himself - his new album is called Yeezus, for chrissakes. But it's important to understand the context in which Kanye is saying that - he's a black man in America. The whole of the culture is basically oriented in such a way as to deny him pride in his own existence, to deny him the right to feel that he is beautiful and inherently worthy. To think of himself as a God is an act of open rebellion. Kanye explained this sentiment during his current tour, when he proclaimed "When I say 'I am a god'….it’s because I believe God is in all of us." To say he is a God, then - to proclaim his importance and worthiness, is not an act of imagined superiority, but an ultimate act of self-love. And in a culture which tells you that you are not worthy of love, self-love is the ultimate rebellion.