If I were to write Web now, it would be a much, much darker book.
The language fictional characters use is chosen for effect, at least if the author is concentrating.
Well, it's an adventure story, and a Bildungsroman, of course, but there was also the intention to describe a culture that had been seen in rather narrow terms.
We're not lost. We're locationally challenged
Observe, don't imitate.
Every book is three books, after all; the one the writer intended, the one the reader expected, and the one that casts its shadow when the first two meet by moonlight.