oracle's xmltype

Hi there

I am using torque in one of my projects, with oracle 9i being my 
underlying database. I would like to make use of oracle's new XMLType 
capability, and would like to extend village and eventually torque to 
support this data type. What I would like to know is if you guys think 
its a good idea to make the extension to the api [Record class?] to 
support oracle's proprietary api.  Under the covers oracle does treat 
the xmltype as a CLOB, but apparently does not let you access the clob 
directly.

Steri