here’s the link… http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/
Here’s a comment by a reader, I feel is insightful
This play is an obvious attempt to emulate US culture. This sounds amateurish because we see many more sophisticated types of violence in the news, on television and in movies all the time. This script is not dated, however, since it’s author had only lived in the United States for about 15 years, more than half his lifetime, is it not possible that THIS is exactly what he perceived our culture to be? It’s very clear that his impression of our culture is very deadly, violent, and very sick. Our culture portrays this sort of thing every day. Those role models like Michael Jackson, named here who have been heralded as royalty, are very twisted models for children.
This is a very vivid reflection of an outsider looking into our culture. Is it a misinterpretation? I think we should all give this a lot of consideration.
Jane at 3:11PM on Apr 17th
Just wanted to add the material is very graphic
Related posts:
- name of the saturday night live skit?
- I need your opinion…..?
- Anyone ever done or watched the play version of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Rogers? What was your opinion?
- What’s your opinion of “Chelsea Lately”?
- What’s your opinion on our school play? What do you think I should do?
- Your Opinion on Cho seung Hui’s Play?
- Are John Deere die cast metal replicas considered toys for kids to play with or collectibles?
- Christmas Play?
- Buy Michael Jackson CD’s
- Christians, do you let your children play violent video games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Saints Row 2?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
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?
1st of all it was very weak….like a lil child wrote it. i cant kind of imagine his mind while doing it prior to what i have learned about this guy the pass hours.
In college, the modern dances, performances, plays, etc. are always LIKE this (”controversial” or “shocking”), it wouldn’t have surprised me.
The difference is this Cho guy was insane.
Think of somebody like Quentin Tarantino in college, you don’t want to falsely “worry” or “accuse” our future Quentins, it’s just that SOME people are nutz (Cho)!
Nice of Ian McFarland to generalize all students who are quiet as being a typical school shooter. I do not understand his need to cause fear of the students who elect to be left alone and are quiet. To me, he is just as dangerous spreading his mindless opinions.
It has an effect, but it is not the body of the case. Koreans (in general) are violent people. When I was watching the news (in China) they first thought it was a Chinese guy. My gut reaction was that it sounded like a Korean would be a better fit, and low and behold. I would venture to guess that in the coming days you’ll see them reporting on childhood abuse and the father very likely beat his wife and kid(extremely common in Korea). This type of violence is bread closer to home. Also, Korea is violent itself and the fact he was stalking women is very telling of Korean society. 1 more thing. Korea has taken over “Bollywood” as the second biggest producer of movies next to the US and if the guy your talking about watched any of them he’d write the same review again. It doesn’t excuse Americas violent media but it certainly isn’t the main factor.
I read 2 pages and I found them full of hate and violence. I think an expert eye can distinguish between literature( Shakespeare’s Andronicus , St. King, other horror writers) and this piece who was written for the purpose of hate and violence. These should have been connected with his strange behaviour. I’m sure it’s a lot of mental disturbance in these plays. I could read it all but I don’t want to spend time on such garbage.
Quentin Tarantino wins awards for his violent, graphic screenplays/movies. What’s the point?
The guy had a warped impression of HIMSELF, not the culture.
I think that his writing is…well…violent, but in a childish manner. There are loads of violent things that are so much more violent than his writing.
He mentions that he wants to kill someone in both stories. That being said, I’m guessing that he’s portraying the character, “John” as himself. I dunno, that’s just my opinion.
Maybe he got molested or something…and people picked on him or something. Something triggered him to take an action…
Your Opinion on Cho seung Hui’s Play?
You did ask
I think that every publicly available copy of this crap should be burned where it is found and the only allowable existing copies of everything this lunatic ever wrote be regulated to a crime lab psych department for study !!
The shear fact that the spotlight is now on this slug and the fact that within ten days every human on the planet will know FAR more about this individual than they will EVER know about the victims IS WITHIN ITSELF A TRAGEDY !!!
But, in no time at all — some “push the envelope” producer will have this slime’s “work” on off-Broadway stage raking in profits from the blood thirsty public — just “dying” to get a “closer look” into the “inside workings” of a mass murderer !!
And, then people have the question of WHY such things happen !! They happen because little nobody’s who would be the one’s crawling into a closet to blow their own worthless brains to God’s back door — now have the option to BECOME somebody in their “passing” by taking a load of others with them !! They accomplish — with these horrindous acts what they never could in life — making the pages of history AND leaving a name for themselves —– Something that literally tens of thousands of hard working people who accomplish MAJOR GOOD IN LIFE can never hope to achieve !!
YOU WANT SOME REAL READING TO CONCENTRATE ON ——-TRY THE FOLLOWING !!!!!
By The Associated Press Tue Apr 17, 12:07 PM ET
A look at some of the victims killed in the Virginia Tech massacre
Ross Abdallah Alameddine
Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., was a sophomore who had just declared English as his major.
Friends created a memorial page on Facebook.com that described Alameddine as “an intelligent, funny, easygoing guy.”
“You’re such an amazing kid, Ross,” wrote Zach Allen, who along with Alameddine attended Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Mass. “You always made me smile, and you always knew the right thing to do or say to cheer anyone up.”
Alameddine was killed in the classroom building, according to Robert Palumbo, a family friend who answered the phone at the Alameddine residence Tuesday.
Alameddine’s mother, Lynnette Alameddine said she was outraged by how victims’ relatives were notified of the shooting.
“It happened in the morning and I did not hear (about her son’s death) until a quarter to 11 at night,” she said. “That was outrageous. Two kids died, and then they shoot a whole bunch of them, including my son.”
___
Ryan Clark
Clark was called “Stack” by his friends, many of whom he met as a resident assistant at Ambler Johnson Hall, where the first shootings took place.
Clark, 22, was from Martinez, Ga., just outside Augusta. He was a fifth-year student working toward degrees in biology and English, and a member of the Marching Virginians band.
“He was just one of the greatest people you could possibly know,” friend Gregory Walton, 25, said after learning from an ambulance driver that Clark was among the dead.
“He was always smiling, always laughing. I don’t think I ever saw him mad in the five years I knew him.”
___
Daniel Perez Cueva
Perez Cueva, 21, from Peru, was killed while in a French class, said his mother, Betty Cueva, who was reached by telephone at the youth’s listed telephone number.
Perez Cuevas as a student of international relations, according to the Virginia Tech Web site.
His father, Flavio Perez, spoke of the death earlier to RPP radio in Peru. He lives in Peru and said he was trying to obtain a humanitarian visa from the U.S. consulate here. He is separated from Cueva, who said she had lived in the United States for six years.
A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Lima said the student’s father “will receive all the attention possible when he applies” for the visa
___
Kevin Granata
Granata, a professor of engineering science and mechanics, served in the military and later conducted orthopedic research in hospitals before coming to Virginia Tech, where he and his students researched muscle and reflex response and robotics.
The head of the school’s engineering science and mechanics department called Granata one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.
Engineering professor Demetri P. Telionis said Granata was successful and kind.
“With so many research projects and graduate students, he still found time to spend with his family, and he coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities,” Telionis said. “He was a wonderful family man. We will all miss him dearly.”
___
Caitlin Hammaren
Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to officials at her former school district.
“She was just one of the most outstanding young individuals that I’ve had the privilege of working with in my 31 years as an educator,” said John P. Latini, principal of Minisink Valley High School, where she graduated in 2005. “Caitlin was a leader among our students.”
Minisink Valley students and teachers shared their grief Tuesday at a counseling center set up in the school, Latini said.
___
Emily Jane Hilscher
Hilscher, a freshman majoring in animal and poultry sciences, was known around her hometown as an animal lover.
“She worked at a veterinarian’s office and cared about them her whole life,” said Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend.
Hilscher, 19, of Woodville, was a freshman majoring in animal and poultry sciences. She lived on the same dorm floor as victim Ryan Clark, McCarthy said.
A friend, Will Nachless, also 19, said Hilscher “was always very friendly. Before I even knew her, I thought she was very outgoing, friendly and helpful, and she was great in chemistry.”
___
Liviu Librescu
Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was known for his research, but his son said he will be remembered as a hero for protecting students as the gunman tried to enter his classroom.
Librescu taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years and had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering.
“His research has enabled better aircraft, superior composite materials, and more robust aerospace structures,” said Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department.
Librescu’s son, Joe, said his father’s students sent e-mails detailing how the professor saved their lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot.
My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee,” Librescu’s son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. “Students started opening windows and jumping out.”
__
G.V. Loganathan
Loganathan was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai and had been a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech since 1982.
Loganathan, 51, won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduate students.
“We all feel like we have had an electric shock. We do not know what to do,” his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. “He has been a driving force for all of us, the guiding force.”
___
Mary Karen Read
Read was born in South Korea into an Air Force family and lived in Texas and California before settling in the northern Virginia suburb of Annandale.
Read, 19, considered a handful of colleges, including nearby George Mason University, before choosing Virginia Tech. It was a popular destination among her Annandale High School classmates, according to her aunt Karen Kuppinger.
She had yet to declare a major.
“I think she wanted to try to spread her wings,” said Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y.
Kuppinger said her niece had struggled adjusting to Tech’s sprawling 2,600-acre campus. But she had recently begun making friends and looking into a sorority.
Kuppinger said the family started calling Read as news reports surfaced.
“After three or four hours passed and she hadn’t picked up her cell phone or answered her e-mail … we did get concerned,” Kuppinger said. “We honestly thought she would pop up.”
(A previous version of this story referred incorrectly to Martinez, Ga., as an Atlanta suburb. It is a suburb of Augusta.)
HOW’S THAT FOR A REAL INTERESTING READ ?????
Interesting. I don’t really think that this means anything except in retrospect (though it could have been one of many overlooked signs that added up to him going over the edge). I think our culture does portray people like Michael Jackson who are idolized in other cultures, and there’s something very wrong or off about that because I am not sure those cultures really “get” that these celebrities are laughingstocks, to be ridiculed, not admired. But these plays, they seem like something that a lot of boys could write. They are simple, and don’t show a lot of detailed thought. I have been in a few writing classes myself, and the guys often write about drugs or violence, and it never once occurred to me that any of them had a chance of being dangerous. In fact, I think of writers as the inactive type. It’s a very safe way of exploring your thoughts and feelings.
I thought his plays were nothing special. They were way more violent than anything I would write but there are many, many plays and movies which are much more violent than his. I don’t think we can look at this as the sole warning sign for Cho Seung-hui.
People are complicated and they can’t be simplified and pushed into categories or profiles. He obviously was isolated but from what I’ve heard, almost unable to get anything out of. He was unreachable by his fellow students and professors. He was also known to be a stalker and referred to himself as a question mark on several occasions.
These are much more severe warning signs than violent plays. These are the signs of someone who is not properly integrating into society, at least not on a functional basis. When someone has such a detached view of society, they can justify any action, including mass murder. There is no remorse for someone who does not feel empathy.
I hope people learn from this incident that they should be more inclusive of others rather than exclusive. Everyone is human and needs to feel included at least in some small way.
I never knew Cho Seung-hui but I wish that someone actually tried to reach him.
Disturbing but this behavior is always a possibility for any of us that live our lives according to our own design and get submerged into our own obsessions.
Our lives were meant to be meaningful beyond the pursuit of our own comfort and pleasures. We were supposed to be reconnecting back to our one source and Creator to be led into a life of purpose according to His already established design.
A life of looking out after one another; a life of caring about our home planet; a selfless life dedicated to the good of others and to the uplifting of humans like this student. As humans, we probably failed to be of benefit to him when we had a chance.
I’d like to see us allowing Christian fellowships on campus, and other groups like it, more freedom in expressing their ministry potential so that they perhaps could reach such troubled souls sooner with God’s love. This is not a call to pursuit religion but the one that was killed by it.
Lets not remain strangers.
I took precious time to actually read the plays. Very honestly I couldn’t see anything seriously disturbing in them. Yes there is a lot of swearing, and threatening language and such, but there is nothing of the extent the media seems imply.
Most comments posted on the site, I feel a lot of them are kiddish, and written plainly out of spite for Cho , which of course is understandable. A lot of them criticize his language and writing skills, which is uncalled for. Other’s like Jane’s I feel try to artificially actuate some sort of profound connection between his plays and his ‘deranged’ perception of the country.
‘Obvious attempt to emulate US culture’. The word obvious is a little misplaced, I have to say, considering the plays is a work of fiction..
It is clear from his recent videos that Cho did look down upon US culture, but this couldn’t have been inferred from his plays and it is dull trying to make an artificial connection of some sort.
How could you possibly say that that murderer’s sick piece of work is “insightful”?? I read both plays yesterday and i don’t think anyone should read them, they are so juvenile and violent. Also, just to point out that he didn’t see Michael Jackson as a role model, he saw him as a pedophile which he is of course not! It is obviously that it is CHO who is “going along with US culture”…probably by doing what he saw in video games!
I’m a high school student in Pusan, Korea REP.
As I heard about the tragic deaths at Virginia univ,
thought that It’s just a shock for me and badly impacted on my heart.
And since I know the criminal was a Korean-American,
I’ve felt I do this crime.
But, the criminal is just a criminal.
Though his life was miserable,
He shot at many innocences indiscriminately.- How a wicked man he is!
Actually, I have a very important exam for my life.
But I decided I must send this writing to the world including the men of other days.
Though the incident happend in the opposite side of the Earth,
I’m really cherishing the memory of a deceased person.
But, everybody!
Although The criminal is a Korean-American,
Please don’t make the whole people from Korea open to criticism.
Of course, It is natural we blame for Cho, the criminal,
Our Korean are doing a lot of ceremonies cherishing the memory of a deceased person.
And we wished for the men of other days to pray for the happiness of the dead.
And please don’t draw a distinction against Korea, Asia and more the colored.
And let me say carefully to the 32 people excluding the criminal.
“We remember you forever. And your sacrifice will be remembered just before
the Earth exist.”
Last, let me say one more to the bereaved family.
I just don’t know what I say to you.
You may feel the sky destruct.
But, if your ancients watch your breakdown,
How will they feel about that?
They may feel more sad about your breakdown than that of their deaths.
Please cheer up.
You must stand up and cheer up.
Please…… cheer up for yourselves and them.
All of the netizens!
I want to share the unbearable sadness by sending this writing to Korea, USA and over the world.
Please send this letter to a lot of sites.
As I’m a high school student, this action is the only thing I can.
I appreciate your reading. Thank you so much!
-from a high school student in Pusan, Korea in April 19,2007.
From what I read, it quite obviously means that Cho was a very, very sick person.
However, the plays are somewhat childish & stupid to me. He seems very, very angry. But why? For some reason, I feel that Cho was molested or raped or SOMETHING, as this seems to be a big part of his plays.
I don’t think Cho was reflecting on American culture. While there is violence & murder everywhere, this happens all over the world.
If he thought America was so terrible, I don’t think he would’ve taken to being one of the monsters to make it that way. I think he would’ve gone back to South Korea where he came from.
There is no excuse for this man. I wish people would stop trying to find one. Sometimes people are just disgusting, evil people who don’t deserve to be here. I hope he rots in Hell for the rest of eternity. What he gets will be much worse than what he did to those kids, Thank God. He thought he was getting an easy way out. What a coward.
And I was kind of offended as to what that comment was saying about America. I wish US citizens would step back and see that there are innocent people in other countries, women and children, dying every day because of the Hell that is their country. All I hear people do is criticize this Great country, when there are corageous men & women fighting…..dying….for your right to do so. I wish that people would show some respect and SUPPORT them instead of knocking them down by disrespecting America.
Sorry, I got off on sort of a tangent.
But, in short, no. I do not believe that Cho’s plays were a reflection of American culture. But who knows. It’s not like we can ask him, right?
i read like two of them and they were extremely weird. it didnt seem like a college student was writing them at all. it was more like a middle school/high school students paper.
another thing is that the plots were something that you dont see happening everyday, like the one with the abusive step-father. all the son did was call the dad names and hate him. (typical teen behaivor)..and the step-father killed him.
i dont see how the plays didnt get him kicked out of the school.
it was really scary when i was reading these to know who had written them