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Posted: Apr 16 2007 03:37 pm

Virginia Tech campus. It's an ongoing story right now, but it doesn't look good. They're saying it might be the worst shooting yet.

Posted: Apr 16 2007 03:45 pm

Last I heard, it was around 30 dead, 20 wounded. Some of the wounded might not make it, though.

I'm just waiting for this to turn into another anti-media push, ironically by the media. They'll find some way to try and place the blame on video games, television, or music.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

Delition wrote:

I'm just waiting for this to turn into another anti-media push, ironically by the media. They'll find some way to try and place the blame on video games, television, or music.

Done and done. Sad

http://kotaku.com/gaming/virginia-tech/breaking-idiot-thompson-blames-va-shooting-on-games-252702.php

Posted: Apr 16 2007 04:47 pm

I just read about this. Absolutely horrible. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by this. Sad

Also, Thompson is an absolutely horrible human being.

Joined: Aug 24 2005 Location: Mount Holly, NJ Posts: 1062

My heart goes out to the Hokies and their families. I've been following this most of the day (in between writing a paper). It's fucking sickening.

Posted: Apr 16 2007 05:11 pm

Damn, this sucks. And Thompson's a dickweed.

Posted: Apr 16 2007 06:14 pm

Hmmm... A University...

This better not affect all colleges... As I already don't trust 90% of my classmates with any sort of weapon.

Posted: Apr 16 2007 06:30 pm

It's sad to see when something like this happens. My friends who go to Tech are fine, but it's just sickening.

And Jack Thompson is scum.

Joined: Nov 29 2006 Location: Minnesota Posts: 91

Of course, no one thinks to question why the shooter had access to not one, but two (or more) 9mm handguns. "Videogame addicits" can't shoot people up if they can't, you konw, buy guns they don't need in the first place.

Posted: Apr 17 2007 08:20 am

Yeah, I have to say that this shooting being at a college instead of a middle or high school makes things feel somewhat different (though no less tragic by any means). Since this guy was of age (I haven't kept up with it too much) to own guns and worthy of being admitted to an institution of secondary (i.e. post-High School) education, I think it's stretching credibility that games alone warped his mind.

Posted: Apr 17 2007 08:26 am

If you kill anybody, you're fucked up. Period.

Posted: Apr 17 2007 03:51 pm

I came home to see this happen on TV.

It was terrible.

And, we need o have a fund to pay a hitman to put a hit out on Jack Thompson. Who's with me?

Posted: Apr 17 2007 04:21 pm

Apparently, a Holocaust survivor was among the victims. He was an engineering/mathematics lecturer. He was killing while barricading his classroom so that students could flee. The man is a hero in every sense of the word.

Also, a 20 year old from Saugus, the town right next me, was killing in the shootings.

This whole thing is way fucked up.

Posted: Apr 17 2007 07:33 pm

I've somehow been following all of this on the news. I don't really watch it, but my parents do so I've seen some stuff. Anyways, today in language arts we had to read an article on it and then write our reaction. Here's mine.

I don't really know what to say about the shootings in Virginia. I never pay attention to the news or world events. Mainly, I focus on my own life before worrying about things that happened miles away from me. That being said, I really don;t care about the killings. Yeah, it sucks that all those people died and everything, but its not like I knew any of them. I don't have a connection to this at all.

yep

Posted: Apr 17 2007 10:19 pm

I have a friend who went to high school with the kid. Said that he had seen him around tons of times, knew he was a stupid, creepy loner.

Joined: Nov 29 2006 Location: Minnesota Posts: 91

There's pretty much no doubt now that this guy was totally batshit crazy (in case you were reserving judgment before). My initial guess would be paranoid schizophrenia, but it's hard to get more precise than "some kind of violent psychotic break" without much more information. Labels seem rather trivial anyway when you have a list of freaky behaviors as long and sordid as the shooter's. This guy apparently spoke rarely, would sign his name with a "?," stalked a number of female students in his dorm via email, threatened to kill himself, and managed to set his dorm on fire. There were a LOT of warning signs, and at least one referal (if not more) to psychological services, yet he kept slipping by.

Posted: Apr 18 2007 10:35 am

The Smoking Gun posted one of his plays. SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

It's also lousy. Confused

Honestly, it's sad that they're exploiting this as evidence of his mental instability. I was a theater major in college and I've seen more twisted plays than that written by my peers, who were some of the nicest, most rational and nonviolent people I've ever met.

My concern is that this is going to cause unfair hypersensitivity to darker fiction writing in schools -- particularly in classes and other settings where creativity is otherwise encouraged. Let's not forget some of the seminal works of literature that were also "fucked up", like Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita."

Posted: Apr 18 2007 12:37 pm

DarkMaze wrote:

It's also lousy. Confused

Honestly, it's sad that they're exploiting this as evidence of his mental instability. I was a theater major in college and I've seen more twisted plays than that written by my peers, who were some of the nicest, most rational and nonviolent people I've ever met.

My concern is that this is going to cause unfair hypersensitivity to darker fiction writing in schools -- particularly in classes and other settings where creativity is otherwise encouraged. Let's not forget some of the seminal works of literature that were also "fucked up", like Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita."

I agree with you. I just hope adminstrators can see the difference between artistic/well-done dark works and the rambling, incoherent messes like the play written by the killer.

Posted: Apr 18 2007 12:37 pm

From the lj of a robin_d_laws:

"Yesterday's incident at Virginia Tech was, it goes without saying, distressing and appalling.

What makes it moreso: these mass-murder/suicides have become sufficiently commonplace that they now feel familiar. Even with a gruesome record body count for the cable news to tout in their on-screen graphics.

We think of fiction as having genres but reality, as shown to us on the news, is often rendered accessible by resort to formula. This is especially true of catastrophes, from bombings to natural disasters. Killing sprees at schools fall into this category now. They’ve happened enough times now that they’ve developed their own enveloping narrative into which any breaking incident can be plugged. The authorities’ press conferences, survivor accounts, interviews with experts, the search for other institutions or people to blame—they reflect the reality of what happened, but also function as genre tropes. Like their counterparts in fiction, they exist partly for the convenience of the storyteller, partly because they’re the natural way to arrange narrative elements, and partly, through their familiarity, to aid our comprehension, and to comfort us.

Because we know the narrative structure already, the news cycle can move quicker. We know the drill already. The pipe has been laid for denser storytelling. The news cycle has so sped up that you cut reflexively to the political debates on gun control and the supposed violent influence of video games before the authorities have even had time to ID the killer.

The maladjusted S.O.B.s who decide to take a bunch of people with them before they shoot themselves are taking part in a pre-programmed discourse. What they’re enacting is spiteful, callous, sadistic—and a hideous cliché.[/i]"

Posted: Apr 18 2007 12:41 pm

Yeah, the play is pretty lousy, but that's besides the point. Writing "violent" stories is hardly a warning sign. Maybe it's because I'm a fiction minor, but I've heard real f'ed writing from kids just like Cho to 40-something year old mothers. As for other things mentioned:

This guy apparently spoke rarely - Too general.
would sign his name with a "?," - At least he didn't sign it as "Executioner" or something significant. A "?" could mean a lack of self-identity, but probably just because it was "cool".
stalked a number of female students in his dorm via email - Again, too many people I know do similar things (including using MySpace and Facebook).
threatened to kill himself - There's severity, but there's also drama. More unbiased information needs to come forward. The problem is, people are going to "power phrase" and talk up Cho to be worse than he probably was really acting.
managed to set his dorm on fire - Knowing someone who accidentally set fire to their dorm, I need more information. If Cho did do it on purpose, I would totally agree this would be a genuine warning sign.

I haven't heard/read a lot of what's going around about the case, but it's hardly sounding like the Trench Coat Mafia making a come back. We'll see...

I'm also surprised no one's connecting Imus to Cho in any way. Considering those are still the two most publicized media events at the moment. Rolling Eyes

Joined: Apr 14 2006 Location: Lake Michigan Posts: 3332

Tebor wrote:

I'm also surprised no one's connecting Imus to Cho in any way. Considering those are still the two most publicized media events at the moment. Rolling Eyes

Obama already has: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0407/Obama_on_Virginia_Tech_and_Violence.html

Posted: Apr 18 2007 07:38 pm

Prediction: Violence against Asians will increase by 150% in my school.

Posted: Apr 18 2007 08:53 pm

Why would people at your school increase violence to Asians? All that means is you've taken one step closer to actually becoming that douchebag. I guess some people just can't see that.

Posted: Apr 18 2007 09:45 pm

after we heard about it in school everyone was all "its an asian, what do you expect". yeah, because all asians go around murdering people. its a known fact. my school disgusts me.