I am quite unhappy with the Allen campaign using books to attack Webb. It politicizes writing. Newt Gingrich, Scooter Libby and Lynne Cheney have all put rather bizarre sex scenes in their books, and to take just the disturbing parts and isolate them from the rest of the book is disingenious.
Frankly I have read "Fields of Fire" and liked it very much, and my vietnam vet uncle is a very big fan of Webb's writing.
Allen should hit Webb on the issues, instead of going after his writing
""Fields of Fire," a novel about the Vietnam War, has been on the Marine Corps reading list for 20 years"
I don't know this "reading list", but it implies that his work has been an "open book" (pun intended) for several years, and just pulling it out of a hat now makes Allen look more desperate than he should be at this point in the campaign.
I'm not. The books may be good; but the individual passages show a sickish mind; maybe OK for Hollyweirdos, but not for a guy running for high office.
At a time when US morals are decaying and marriages foundering, we don't need writers of smut in the Senate.
...and when they run for Senate, or any other office, their words should be given thorough consideration.
"Allen should hit Webb on the issues"
To put as kindly as possible, Jim Webb has not campaigned on the issues. His whole campaign has been one of belligerent name-calling. I have rarely seen a candidate get as personal in his attacks as Webb has. Allen is just giving his opponent a dose of his own medicine.
Character is an issue in this campaign. Webb made it an issue with the whole Macaca kerfuffle.
I don't know about Scooter and Newt... but Lynn's book was tame in the extreme. A dem website found the worst thing in it and it was nothing. Stop believing everything Webb and the MSM tells you.
None of this has anything to do with 'Fields of Fire'. The main excerpt is from 'Lost Soldiers'. The Webb campaign keeps saying this, hoping the average person won't see the real texts at issue.
Webb is the one who politicized it by running for office. He may well be a fine (though twisted) author, but that kind of man really shouldn't be running for office to represent the people of Virginia.
Newt Gingrich, Scooter Libby and Lynne Cheney have all put rather bizarre sex scenes in their books, and to take just the disturbing parts and isolate them from the rest of the book is disingenious.
Neither Gingrich nor Libby are in power, and as for Lynne Cheney, her book “Sisters” was written in 1981 and the worst passage that liberals can point to is this one:
”The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave.”
Pretty tame. Contrast that with a US Senate candidate's whose every book, is laced with passages of perverted sex. We know it's only writing, but it does reveal some insights into his mind and character.
Even in "Fields of Fire" that you liked very much, I found these passages disturbing:
From Fields of Fire: “Snake (the protagonist) sees his mother on the bed: "She looked as if she were carefully attempting to re-create a picture from some long-forgotten men's magazine . . . . She was naked underneath the robe . . . . and the robe fell loosely away, revealing her. Snake shrugged resignedly.""He saw the invitation with every bouncing breast and curved hip. . . . He was thirteen. . . . She was fifteen . . . . In a few moments she drew him to her and he murmured in his quiet voice, 'I am still small.' 'You are large enough,' she answered. And he found he was."
I have more steamy passages to post from Webb's books, but I don't think it's necessary. And besides Webb's writings about pedophilia and incest, his depiction of women is totally offensive. By the way, the incestuous pedophile passage is in "Lost Soldiers."
George Allen's press release is quite explanatory:
· Some of Webb’s writings are very disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians in the U.S. Senate.And yes, Allen is hitting Webb on the issues as well.· Many excellent books about the United States military and wartime service accomplish their purposes, and even win awards, without systematically demeaning women, and without dehumanizing women, men and even children.
· Webb’s novels disturbingly and consistently – indeed, almost uniformly – portray women as servile, subordinate, inept, incompetent, promiscuous, perverted, or some combination of these. In novel after novel, Webb assigns his female characters base, negative characteristics. In thousands of pages of fiction penned by Webb, there are few if any strong, admirable women or positive female role models.
Why does Jim Webb refuse to portray women in a respectful, positive light, whether in his non-fiction concerning their role in the military, or in his provocative novels? How can women trust him to represent their views in the Senate when chauvinistic attitudes and sexually exploitive references run throughout his fiction and non-fiction writings?
It sounds like you are familiar with these "bizarre sex scenes." Can you please post some excerpts so that we understand your point of view?
Welcome to FreeRepublic.
And by gosh, by golly by gee, you signed up TODAY to tell us all about it????
And reading from the Raising Kaine press releases no doubt.
Sorry. I just don't believe you.
****Lynne Cheney [have all] put rather bizarre sex scenes in their books****
Do you have any examples of this charge? She said on CNN with Wolf Blitzer that she never wrote anything sexually explicit.
If Mark Foley is responsible for his writings then so is James Webb.
Allen's campaign would never have gone down this trail if Webb had campaigned on the issues. Webb's only strategy has been to smear and demean Allen. Webb should have considered his own history when he attacked Allen.