Joshua Minton’s blog entry “Why You Shouldn’t Fuck With English Students” got me thinking of the killer of the Virginia Tech shootings. In recent years, we’ve had our series of tragedies with the proverbial bad apples as the perpetrators: the Oklahoma bombers, the Columbine shooters, members of al-Quaeda, and now a lonely, anti-social misfit of an English major.
McVeigh’s crimes drew scant attention to domestic terrorists, while the aftermath of the Columbine shooters made the lives of school children miserable as security was increased and black as a fashion color was looked upon with suspicion by lily white parents. A big part of the Middle East was punished for 9/11 and airline travelers have had to endure more hassles ever since. Now, will there be a backlash against English majors?
I hope not. The crime is simply heinous. The kid was greatly fucked up. I have to applaud the creative writing teacher who tried to get him to see a counselor. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to get help and she couldn’t force him. Talk about a horse that wouldn’t drink after being led to water.
Here’s my attempt at damage control for the rest of us English majors.
Some really cool English majors include:
Emma Thompson
Dave Barry
Reese Witherspoon
Sting
me and some of my friends
Update: AOL has copies of two of his disturbing works.
Tags: Cho Seung-Hui, creative writing, disturbing works, English majors, Virginia Tech
I was thinking about how this might affect creative writing classes. Will profs now have to report any disturbing stories or plays? Well, I kinda hope so. And I kinda hope not. But I wish the girl who turned in the story about masturbating with dental instruments had been institutionalized. At least she wouldn’t have a book deal now.
The question is, are they disturbing or just bad? If they are both, they should be expelled from their BFA or MFA program because some things should never be inflicted upon a creative writing course.
I hope prof’s aren’t required to report disturbing works. It should be voluntary, especially if the work really reflected an unstable mind. But, Cho’s issues weren’t limited to his writing, as Nikki Giovanni can attest to.
Would a mental health evaluation be necessary to become an English major or take creative writing class? I hope not.
All you peoples what talks good is suspects to me.