If such things actually happened in Nam, and the incident were handled with more skillful literary craft, that would be one thing. Neither is true. It was just out of the blue gratuitous shock sex to sell books. Of course the books should not be banned, and it is not "sick" to read trash novels - just a waste of time.
He defended his fiction as "illuminative."
"It's not a sexual act," Webb told Plotkin regarding the "Lost Soldiers" excerpt. "I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist."
"The duty of a writer is to illuminate the surroundings," he added.
Coincidentally, a Cambodian woman in Las Vegas is facing sexual assault charges for performing a similar act on her young son, according to an Oct. 14 report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The article quotes an office manager for the Cambodian Association of America, who described the act as a sign of respect or love.
Oct. 14, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Cambodian woman faces sexual assault charge
Attorney: Putting son's penis in mother's mouth cultural display of love
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Oct-14-Sat-2006/news/10225038.html