VV(11): Winsome

[Dave Monroe]

"Winsome had left work early." (V., Ch. 8, Sec. ii, p. 217)

>From the Online Merriam Webster Colegiate Dictionary ...

http://www.m-w.com/

Main Entry: win·some
Pronunciation: 'win(t)-s&m
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English winsum, from Old English wynsum, from wynn joy; 
akin to Old High German wunna joy, Latin venus desire--more at WIN
Date: before 12th century
1: generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and 
innocence
2: CHEERFUL, GAY
- win·some·ly adverb
- win·some·ness noun

Note, as I'm sure you all have, that "venus" there, so ...

Main Entry: win
Pronunciation: 'win
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): won /'w&n/; win·ning
Etymology: Middle English winnen, from Old English winnan to struggle; akin 
to Old High German winnan to struggle and probably to Latin venus sexual 
desire, charm, Sanskrit vanas desire, vanoti he strives for
Date: before 12th century ...

And so forth.  The point being, and awful lot of applicable "v"-words in 
that etymology.  But, of course, one can't help but hear as well ...

"You win some, you lose some."

Comments?  But what about that nickname?  J. Kerry Grant, A Companion to V. 
(Athens: U of Georgia P, 2001), mentions the following @ PC126.27 PF123.22 
B111.6 (i.e., p. 71 of JKG, ACTV) ...

"the nickname derives from The Education of Henry Adams: William Henry 
Fitzhugh 'Roony' Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee, was a classmate and friend 
of Adams's at Harvard"

A citation from p. 108 of ...

Pittas-Giroux, Justin Arthur.  "A Reader's Guide to Thomas
   Pynchon's V."  Thesis (M.A.), U of South Carolina, 1995.

Which seems a very useful document to have.  So, of course, I don't have it. 
  But that Confederate connection does make sense, given Winsome's 
"Southron" (North Carolina, to be specific) extraction, not to mention his 
peculiar Southern "inheritance" (V., p. 126).  And that Henry Adams 
connection makes no small sense as well, considering Pynchon's own admitted 
Adamic education (e.g., V., p. 62).  Now here's a useful resource ...

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/hypertex.html

Many useful texts here, the first of which being, fortuitously ...

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HADAMS/ha_home.html

Checking the index ...

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HADAMS/ehaindex.html

Yields ...

"Lee, William Henry Fitzhugh ('Roony'), at Harvard College, 57."

Which is easily located @ ...

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HADAMS/eha04.html

And runs as follows ...

   "Lee, known through life as 'Roony,' was a Virginian of the eighteenth  
century, much as Henry Adams was a Bostonian of the same age. Roony Lee had 
changed little from the type of his grandfather, Light Horse Harry. Tall, 
largely built, handsome, genial, with liberal Virginian openness towards all 
he liked, he had also the Virginian habit of command and took leadership as 
his natural habit. No one cared to contest it. None of the New Englanders 
wanted command. For a year, at least, Lee was the most popular and prominent 
young man in his class, but then seemed slowly to drop into the background. 
The habit of command was not enough, and the Virginian had little else. He 
was simple beyond analysis; so simple that even the simple New England 
student could not realize him. No one knew enough to know how ignorant he 
was; how childlike; how helpless before the relative complexity of a school. 
As an animal, the Southerner seemed to have every advantage, but even as an 
animal he steadily lost ground.
   "The lesson in education was vital to these young men, who who, within 
ten years, killed each other by scores in the act of testing their college 
conclusions. Strictly, the Southerner had no mind; he had temperament He was 
not a scholar; he had no intellectual training; he could not analyze an 
idea, and he could not even conceive of admitting two; but in life one could 
get along very well without ideas, if one had only the social instinct. 
Dozens of eminent statesmen were men of Lee's type, and maintained 
themselves well enough in the legislature, but college was a sharper 
test...."

Which isn't altogether inapplicable to Winsome, either.  "Lee, known through 
life as 'Roony,' was a Virginian of the eighteenth century"; cf. "He had, he 
knew, certain nineteenth-century ideas of what was proper" (V., p. 221; and 
more on what those "ideas" might be to follow).  As well as, of course, 
Stencil's insistance that he himself is, a la Adams, "purely the century's 
man" (V., p. 226).  And note that Winsome explicitly sets himself in 
contradistinction to "scholars," "intellectuals" ...

"Oh, man, thought Winsome, an intellectual.  I had to pick an intellectual.  
They all revert." (V., p. 123)

"They" vs. "we."  But speaking of "eminent statesmen" ...

It's not much mentioned past Winsome's entrance @ V., Ch. 5, Sec. ii, p. 
123, but note that "Roony" is actually a nickname.  His given name is 
"Gouverneur," perhaps not unusual for a "Southroner," but this is Pynchon 
we're reading here, so, borrowing a trick from Charles Hollander, we 
activate/conjure/whatever the ol' "Magic Eye," and ...

And where I thought I'd certainly come up with Gouverneur Morris--reluctant 
Revolutionary, father of the decimal monetary system, nigh unto author of 
the U.S. Constitution, Federalist, chairman in charge of construction of the 
Erie Canal--

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,55167+1+53814,00.html?query=morris%20gouverneur

---I instead first hit one David Gouveneur Barnet--liberator of Venezuela, 
first president of the Republic of Texas--instead.  See ...

http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/burnetdg.htm

Of course, I'd misspelled "Gouverneur," but, in light of the Davy Crockett 
reference to come, close is at least as good in allusion as it is in 
horseshoes and hand grenades.  But what to do with this, er, happy accident 
(what's the word I'm looking for here, it's driving me nuts)?  Is there a 
Hollander in the house?  Let me know ...




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