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.