If you HONESTLY judge Webb by his art, you can reach no other conclusion than that he is innocent of the smears, i.e. that he condones pedaphilia or homosexual filatio.
That conclusion is of course impossible with Maplethorpe.
Tell me EXACTLY how Webb is a deviant for using an accepted (though repugnant by western standards) cultural tradition as a means of illustrating the differences between the cultures?
Do you believe that a writer condones, approves and fantasizes about every action that his or her character undertakes?
As an adult, with a presumably rational mind, you must conclude that writers who create characters often create them with differences between the reader and the character to make the story interesting.
I am not asking you to approve of what the character did. I am asking you to accept that Webb is not a deviant for including the questionable action in his novel.
Well, if you're going to allow us Philistine imperfect conservatives to state opinions on art...
Why this example? I'm not sure this is such a common practise. I've never heard of it.
Nonetheless, are there no other differences a normal person might use to illustrate the gap between the cultures?
So why did he choose this one for his novel? This is not a report on what he saw in Bangkok that day. (If that statement is even true.)
I don't see this one example of his weird art to be conclusive of his unsuitablility. But it fits a pattern in his art and it fits with reports of his personality from people who know him
"Artistic temperament" is fine for artists, even when extreme. For a politician there's a limit to how much of it is acceptable. Even to "real conservatives".