V.V. (11): Certain Nineteenth Century Ideas of What Was Proper

[Dave Monroe]

"He had, he knew, certain nineteenth century ideas of
what was proper." (V., Ch. 8, Sec. ii, p. 221)

Pardon me for changing the thread here, but this is
how  I'd planned to approach this bit, so ... but,
indeed, even more so than his plan to enlist Rachel as
Pandarus to Paola's Cressida, one of Gouverneur
"Roony" Winsome's "certain nineteenth century ideas of
what is proper" is that "resentment" of Mafia's (are
we ever given her maiden name?) "urban or Yankee way
of hating Nigras" (V., Ch. 5, Sec. ii, p. 126, and,
thanks, you've saved me some typing), that "it was not
a matter of love, hate, like or not like so much as an
inheritance you lived with" (ibid.).  That
"inheritance" not only of the South, the Confederacy,
but of America, passed on well beyond the end of the
"pecular institution" of slavery.  Cf. The Crying of
Lot 49, "the legacy America" (p. 182)?  And he
certainly doesn't make himself out to be any better
than that "foul-mouthed louseridden boozehound," Davy
Crockett (p. 219), having, in the possibly
"nonesensical legend" of "The Ballad of Roony
Winsome," at least, and among other things, "Whopped
him a nigger when he was only three" (p. 220). 
Winsome (lose some) might not see this as hypocritical
("somewhat" [?!] or otherwise), of course, but ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
 
> Of course, the rest of that (elided?) paragraph is
> incredibly important:
> 
>     Winsome, being originally from North Carolina,
> resented her urban or
>     Yankee way of hating Nigras. During their
> courtship he'd admired her
>     vast repertoire of Negro jokes. Only after the
> marriage did he discover
>     a truth as horrible as the fact she wore
> falsies: she was in nearly
>     total ignorance about the Southron feeling
> toward Negroes. She used
>     "nigger" as a term of hatred .... Winsome was
> too upset to tell her
>     it was not a matter of love, hate, like or not
> like so much as an
>     inheritance you lived with. ...
> 
> Roony's somewhat hypocritical distinction between
> types of racism is what is
> foregrounded in this (disparaging and self-pitying)
> meditation on his wife
> and her work. (In a similar way he later denounces
> the legend of Davy
> Crockett but ventures an equally fanciful and
> distorted legend of Roony
> Winsome in its place.)
 


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