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– Lost Soldiers: “A shirtless man walked toward them along a mud pathway. His muscles were young and hard, but his face was devastated with wrinkles. His eyes were so red that they appeared to be burned by fire. A naked boy ran happily toward him from a little plot of dirt. The man grabbed his young son in his arms, turned him upside down, and put the boy’s penis in his mouth.” ......... Bantam Books, NY, 1st Edition, 2001, (hard cover), page 333. Quote is from para. 10,.Chap. 34.
When I first heard about the "homosexual, underage, incest" angle, I thought that the described behavior happened in some back room behind closed doors that added nothing to the story. Now it seems that the described conduct in the novel was done outdoors by a Vietnamese villager out in the boondocks.
This is a Vietnam war novel, James Webb is a highly decorated Vietnam combat veteran, with the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and two Bronze Stars, and you do see some pretty weird customs in rural areas sometimes in foreign cultures. Nowadays, you don't even have to leave an American major city to see some pretty weird stuff in public.
I was not in Vietnam. James Webb was.
Before jumping into the "he writes homosexual, underage incest" bandwagon, shouldn't we be trying to find out if such a "greeting" was a rural Vietnamese custom that Webb might have actually witnessed in the 1960's?
40 posted on 10/27/2006 7:09:17 AM PDT by Polybius
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What I want to know is:
Was this a rural Vietnamese custom that was actually witnessed by Webb or other American soldiers in Vietnam or not?
Yes or no.
If it was, then this intervew is a perfect time for Webb to say so and, IMHO, that should be the end of that. It would then be a legitimate recounting of actual local behavior witnessed by American troops in Vietnam.
If it was not, then I am at a loss at how to defend including such an episode in a war novel.
This is satire, right...?
"find out if such a "greeting" was a rural Vietnamese custom that Webb might have actually witnessed in the 1960's?"
You want to know if gagging on your son's tiny little giggle pin is a rural custom in V-Nam? Holding no Ph.Ds in SE Asian culture or anything like that, my guess is No! It is not.
He's "casting off his own authorship" onto a "cultural" thingee about Vietnamese. BS.
Hmm. Perhaps the vietnamese Republican Candidate in California would care to comment upon this "cite" about "vietnamese" cultures by Webb? He should. IMHO. It's a perfectly opening shot, IMHO.
Before jumping into the "he writes homosexual, underage incest" bandwagon, shouldn't we be trying to find out if such a "greeting" was a rural Vietnamese custom that Webb might have actually witnessed in the 1960's?
Hey, Son! How was school today? Now come over here and let me s&*% on that d*&%.
Well, is it a customary greeting?
His stereotype of the Asian woman slicing and dicing bananas is a very old one,,from WWII I do believe. I remember hearing it 45 years ago.
See post #118
Can either of you fine gentlemen shed some light on this?
> What I want to know is:
Was this a rural Vietnamese custom that was actually witnessed by Webb or other American soldiers in Vietnam or not?
Yes or no.
If it was, then this intervew is a perfect time for Webb to say so and, IMHO, that should be the end of that. It would then be a legitimate recounting of actual local behavior witnessed by American troops in Vietnam.
If it was not, then I am at a loss at how to defend including such an episode in a war novel.<
Having said that, if I had seen such things and were a writer, I would not have written of it. In fact I wouldn't even discuss such things they're so disgusting.
Now if this were a non-fiction anthropology text, there may be some justification for including it...(although National Geographic hasn't seen fit to mention it). But this was FICTION (literary works of imagination: novels and stories that describe imaginary people and events).
In what section do you file books that contain this sort of material...I say in the section that you have to show ID to get into.