OMG did anyone read the plays from Cho Seung-Hui??

Question

They...Are...So...Disturbing. I was on Wikipedia when I came across the links to an article on AOL News. They're both there full length. So scary.

Here's the link to the plays:
http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/

I warn you, these plays are VERY disturbing. I'm still shaken from them.

Answer 1

I read the plays, and they certainly are violent. But I'm cautious not to take these two plays out of context; I mean, we're not told if Cho wrote 40 plays, and all the other 38 were about prancing unicorns and sunny summer days. It's easy for us to look at two isolated scripts, and say "oh, everyone should have known".

The problem with creative writing is that it's supposed to be creative, and, in disciplines such as English writing and drama, we must make a distinction between art and life. A lot of the time, teachers push students to explore their creative boundaries, and to even explore taboo or controversial material.

I mean, look at William Shakespeare. If you want to read King Lear, it has really terrible violence - eyes being ripped out of live skulls, and nasty, nasty deaths. In King John, there is another scene where a prisoner's eyes are to be put out with hot pokers. And Romeo and Juliet, a high-school staple, features teen suicide. A lot of other drama and writing has equally - and even more graphic - violence.

But we study this stuff openly in English classes everywhere - it's even considered fine literature. And then, when you compare the violence in literature and the violence imagined by screen writers, directors and producers for many of Hollywood's most celebrated movies and films, Cho's writing really pales into insignificance. I mean, look at "Silence of the Lambs," or any one of the three films in the "Saw" trilogy, which features people's ribcages being ripped open while they're still alive, and people being forced to put their own hands into acid. That's way nastier than Cho's writings, but it made the film producers multi millions.

Because of the graphic nature of a lot of material in English, Drama, and Arts - and because we don't know if Cho wrote other plays that weren't of this orientation, I think it's difficult to condemn his teachers for not "recognising" the "warning signs".

Otherwise, we'd should probably lock up a great many of the world's best writers and artists in the name of safety and security. And we should probably shut down Hollywood while we're at it.... minds that twisted should be referred to counselling, right?

Answer 2

I read both plays, and I have to say that those stories are pretty sick, but what really sticks out in my mind is not really the subject matter, but the immaturity shown in them. There are a lot of books, movies and plays that are far more graphic than the 2 that Cho wrote.

Answer 3

No, but I saw the titles, which made me think, "The title seems nice and clean! But it's supposed to be demented and twisted..."

Now, maybe he had a traumatic childhood, and since then, his troubles kept piling up and up until he couldn't take it. One of his plays was supposedly about a kid who was being sexually abused by his father and the kid planned on revenge or something. Now, let's see if Cho Seung-Hui's father admits to sexually abusing him. Maybe his plays are linked to his past problems?

Answer 4

omg I read the plays just this morning and I was like OMG !like y wouldnt the professor or a student or someone bring that to the dean! Very scary!

Answer 5

I agree with The Oracle 100%

Answer 6

Could you please put the link to the articles you are talking about? Thanks!

You are right. They were terrible. It makes you think that he was sexually abused by someone, doesn't it, since that is what he talks about most in the play. That would screw up anyone's mine.

Thanks for adding the link!

Answer 7

I think that it was not right that he had to kill all those innocent people just because he hated them he was a addicted person to a pills that got him crazy so his friends discibed him as a person that always wanted to kill the students in Virgina Tech. University.

Answer 8

Yes the plays were terrible, and sure does sound like he was sexually abused, wonder if he told his girlfriend his deep secret, then the relationship ended and so his secret didn't get out he killed her........things that make you go hummmmm

Answer 9

I think that they're kinda creepy, like if I read them I would think that maybe some crap happened to him in his childhood, but I wouldnt think this is a murderer. I think they seem worse because we know what hes done.

Answer 10

R u sure they are real... I read a couple of pages and it sounds like something a kid would write.. differently not something a college student would write!