Why are people obsessed with the gunman's gory plays that he wrote?

Question

If that was a crime, we would never have seen Pulp Fiction or Reseviour Dogs as Quentin T would have been sitting in a prison cell ...............

Answer 1

Because people want to make sense of a senseless tragedy by dissecting the life of the person who commited the tragedy. No reasonable person is advocating for imprisoning somebody based on the expression of thoughts.

Answer 2

Again with your really dumb questions. No one is obsessed a day after the tragedy, they are trying to make sense. It is natural human nature. The parents of the dead children are wondering why this kid wasnt kicked out of school and tossed into a mental ward. I'd be more concerned about your love of violent movies that makes you think that they have no impact on our culture and the dead children at Virginia Tech. Sadly the violent movies and news reports of these types of crimes are giving ideas to copycat criminals. Example: the chain used to lock the doors of the dormatory or class room has been seen in many movies and depicted again and again in the same sort of crime. If the story is stopped being told, the copy cat has nothing to copy. If he was truely creative like Quentin Tarantino, the deaths would have been committed in a new and fresh way. Example: Hijacking the planes and crashing into the trade center.

Answer 3

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 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 4

I just read it because I wanted to see his mind frame at the time. He should have been removed from college because of his sick mind but by the same token he was protected by freedom of speech. His professor approached the head people about his play but they said they couldnt do anything about it because again "freedom of speech" Now look what happen he commited an atrocious act and now we are finding out that a red flag had gone up already but nothing was done!!!!

Answer 5

People like to be able to say, "I knew there was something suspicious about him all along". Have you seen the movie Arlington Rd? At the end, all these people (including the ex-girlfriend) talk about how they always thought the professor was suspicious, when the viewer actually knows that he was innocent.
I am sure there are heaps of people out there who write gory stories/plays (in fact, some earn a lot of money for it!) who don't end up killing heaps of people.

Answer 6

It gives insight into the gunman's state of mind. People want to learn from this experience hoping we can learn to prevent it in future.

The gunman's instructor was so disturbed by his writings that the instructor actually contacted some police. So it's nothing to laugh at or ignore.

All this may teach us how to prevent future school shootings.

Answer 7

Obsessed? Why would anyone be obsessed with that crap? People just read it to get a better understanding why that coward killed those people because it doesn't make any sense right now for people.

Answer 8

Are they going to go after Tarantino and Rodriguez for grindhouse the same way they are going after rap after Imus?

Answer 9

I guess to understand why this happened and what motivated him to commit such a horrible crime...

Answer 10

I think they are just trying to make sense on why he did this???