Posted on 10/27/2006 5:44:03 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
I did, but your point vis-a-vis Barbara Kingsolver was lost on me.
Writers, in my experience (mostly SF / Fantasy) are pretty darn weird folks without being twisted or sick. I remember Jody Lynn Nye telling a bunch of us about a chapter that ALMOST made it into a book, before she told the editor to take it out - it was a joke!
So I dunno the passage and dunno the context. But it could be part of defining a villain as a really, really evil, sick, freak. I remember several books defining the villains through their sexual behavior, involving incest (at least one was by Ludlum... actually, two, I think).
A much more important question about Webb and his character is how a man who used to defend the Vietnam grunt can now accept endorsement and support from somebody like John Kerry. The Webb campaign happily trumpeted Kerry's endorsement, at which point a fair question would have been, "How can Webb accept support from Kerry, who - while still on active duty - organized North Vietnamese-sponsored show trials to condemn US servicemen?"
An excellent post.
How does one portray an incestuous homosexual pedophile without being vulgar or offensive?
Dems over on Underground and other dem Blogers are trying to spin it as cultural and site some sources....however the sources they site are about India (and kiss, not putting in the mouth).
I don't know where Webb's book is supposed to take place...but what is cultural acceptable in a tiny spot in India does not realte to the rest of the world.
Not quite, IMHE. It will get the NAMBLA and the feminist Democrat base excited. But the yellow-dog Democrat base? No. They are not going to be able to wrap their heads fast enuff around PelosiDem "culture of corruption" Foley-gate, to rebound soon enough to "endorsing" the pedophilia verbiage as "acceptable".
Foley-gate raised such a furor, and the MSM has been so enabling with keeping it alive, it taints the Begala defense of "it's just art/fiction".
Exactly. Sometimes I think some conservatives lack the conviction of their principles. The left is wholly bankrupt and filled to the brim with these kind of individuals who are not just morally weak which we all are but they are blatant and celebratory of the lowest ideas that flow through the gutter of our society. We should not be ashamed to point out when anyone whether it be a Republican like Foley or a someone like Webb has crossed the line. Sometimes I think we have become confused and expect all truth to be fluff and any hard truths become mud. I'm personally tired of the fluff debates and the slinging of fluff. It is about time we focused on who these people running for congress really are and what they really believe.
There are different standards for conservatives and 'Pubbies vs. Democrats and commie-pinko-socialist-liberal fellow travelers. You know that.
And I didn't hold the "N" word (geez I hate that convention, why can't we just us it?) against him, either.
Agreed. The "bits" were clearly not intended to titillate. Webb's bits are intended to titillate.
Nope. Then again, I wouldn't trust Newt Gingrich, either.
"it makes them look incredibly desperate."
No it makes them look like they picked up the shit flung at them and tossed it back.
I for one say "Its about time!"
Yup. I keep thinking how this would play on my mother. She's a librarian, and I think she's pretty liberal when it comes to the content of books. But she's also religious, and there is no way in hell the pedophilia stuff wouldn't cause her to view Webb in a more negative light.
There is no way this is a positive for Webb, much in the same way the Foley stuff was not positive for the GOP.
This puts me in mind of the case of Mark Fuhrman.
Sure they will after we tell them that Webb uses the word 'macaca' in his novel.
excellent point.
Liberals and the MSM love to play "gotcha" on soundbytes and clips. Here's now happening one they are trying to spin into a "positive" for their side.
C'mon, Pelosi. Let's see your tough, brass knuckles latest Presser.
Actually, it's portrayed quite frequently on commercial broadcast TV, e.g., Law and Order SVU, without any offensive graphic dialogue. Yes, I know that'a s different medium, but the same approach -- more suggestive than graphic -- no doubt occurs frequently in literature.
Had Webb simply been prone to including steamy adult sex in his work, I'd never have questioned it. But while I believe he has the right to write the way he does, the fact that his work is peppered with graphic perversion should rightly cause people to stop and think before voting him into the US Senate.
For those of you outside of South Massachsetts / Northern VA, what's Webb's message? Up here, he drones on passionlessly about hiking minimum wage, hiking taxes, and embryonic stem cell research - and nothing I've seen from him indicates that he actually believes in what he's saying.
Aside from the same huge ego, the late 1980s/early 90s Webb isn't the 2006 version. I think that the Webb I saw talking about "A Sense of Honor" in 1988. In fact, I'd wager that the 1988 Webb would want to kick 2006 Webb's smarmy ass.
And, in my opinion, to cast Fuhrman as a racist because a piece of fiction he wrote contained the word "nigger," was wrong. Now Fuhrman might be a racist, but that alone would not prove the case.
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