I read an article on digg yesterday with this play and another one (Mr.Brownstone). The article was accompanied by a statement/interview from some guy who knew this kid from the english class in which he wrote them. Aparently it was a class where each student submitted a play every once in a while to a website and it was peer reviewed and discussed in class the next day.
Anyways, the guy who was interviewd said the entire class knew that something was wrong with this kid from what he wrote and the fact that he was really introverted. Here's the interview section:
http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/I'm going to go on a bit of a rant here, but I call bullshit. I also think that this kind of fucked up attitude is what ostracizes people like this and very well just might contribute to their breakdown and eventual snapping.
". He would sit by himself whenever possible, and didn't like talking to anyone. I don't think I've ever actually heard his voice before. He was just so quiet and kept to himself. Looking back, he fit the exact stereotype of what one would typically think of as a "school shooter" – a loner, obsessed with violence, and serious personal problems."
I generally would not like talking to people in my university classes. I'm naturally pretty outgoing, make friends easily and am very social, but a lot of the people in say, an english play writing class are fucking tools and I don't want to even engage in small talk with them for feat that they'll either get the wrong idea or say something really stupid and annoying. As for 'obsessed with violence' I'll get to that later. I have trouble believing in the claims of 'serious personal problems' just because he aparently didn't talk to anyone and as such probably didn't open up about his problems. It's also not something we should judge by the fact that he's introverted and/or is 'obsessed with violence'.
". One friend of mine tried to offer him some Halloween candy that she still had, but he slowly shook his head, refusing it."
What the fuck does that even mean, and what relevence does that have to the fact that he was obviously fucking crazy. I wouldn't take your hippy friend's fucking candy either.
"As far as notifying authorities, there isn't (to my knowledge) any system set up that lets people say "Hey! This guy has some issues! Maybe you should look into this guy!""
There is. The 'problem' with it is that the issues he had that made you decide before hand that he was a sociopath are shared by many many other university students. Ones that would never think of going on a rampage.
As for the plays, they fucking suck, but that's really the only extraordinary thing about them. The two that I read really weren't that twisted or violent considering what else is out there. They've got nothing on most of the mainstream stuff. In one a kid briefly mentions that a teacher raped him. In the other there's a chainsaw and possibly a kid getting killed. Have you even fucking read Silence of the Lambs?
Look, I'm not standing up for the guy, or even trying to prove a point, I just think it's dangerously simplistic to retropectivly look back at the people that do shit like this and assume they all act the way we'd expect them to, especially when millions of kids act the same way and don't pose a threat to anyone.
