>>14891266No, I think you are confusing two conjugations here.
the "be" in "I be" is a different conjugation than the "be" in "I do be"
One is the subjunctive and the other one is the infinitive with the "do" being in the indicative.
I don't consider the German equivalent "Ich sei" to be archaic in general. "Ich sei wütend" sounds a little archaic, but "Er sagte, er sei wütend" is completely normal. I guess the usefulness of that conjugation is inhibited, since people don't use it effectively, since people are lazy when it comes to language too.
Of course, "I do be angry at that portrayal of myself" is not how the normal English speaker would say that. They would probably say "It makes me angry that I am being portrayed like that". They basically mean the same thing. I just chose to write it in a non-standard way that is still grammatically correct, whether it sounded like natural English was not a priority.
