Stephen King on Cho Heung-Sui
Entertainment Weekly decided to ask Stephen King about Virginia Tech shooter Cho Heung Sui’s writings to glean a glimpse of the lines between fiction and violence. The short essay is particularly insightful, as it suggests what I’ve been thinking as well–the only link between disturbed writings and massacre is a distinct lack of talent:
For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence: We visualize what we will never actually do. Cho doesn’t strike me as in the least creative, however. Dude was crazy. […] He may have been inspired by Columbine, but only because he was too dim to think up such a scenario on his own. On the whole, I don’t think you can pick these guys out based on their work, unless you look for violence unenlivened by any real talent.
King also suggests that the media coverage Cho Heung-Sui could win was a contributing factor the VT shootings:
But that was in the days before a gun-totin’ serial killer could get top billing on the Nightly News and possibly the covers of national magazines.
For more information, please read the Virginia Tech Massacre and Seung Hui Cho articles on wikipedia.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is tagged with cho heung sui, virginia tech shooter, virginia tech massacre, seung hui cho, national magazines, gun totin, distinct lack, entertainment weekly, short essay, top billing, virginia tech, nightly news, stephen king, vt shootings, serial killer, media coverage, wikipedia, columbine, glimpse, imagination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
Leave a Reply
Please take time to enjoy the archives: June 2008 (2) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (1) February 2008 (1) January 2008 (3) October 2007 (2) September 2007 (1) August 2007 (3) July 2007 (4) June 2007 (3) May 2007 (2) April 2007 (5) March 2007 (3) February 2007 (3) January 2007 (1) December 2006 (3) November 2006 (4) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (3) August 2006 (2) February 2006 (3) January 2006 (2) December 2005 (3) November 2005 (2) October 2005 (4) September 2005 (1) August 2005 (5) July 2005 (4) June 2005 (1) May 2005 (3) April 2005 (8) March 2005 (8) February 2005 (8) January 2005 (11) December 2004 (6) November 2004 (6)
Fresh, related resources:
- Stephen King on Cho Heung-Sui
cho, entertainment weekly, violence, wikipedia, stephen king, virginia tech, also suggests that, disturbed, gun totin, national magazines, distinct lack, short essay, nightly news, top billing, serial killer, media coverage, insightful, ...