Parenting Teens

The King of horror himself (Stephen, that is) has spoken about the writings of Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old student responsible for the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. Stephen King’s take on Cho’s writings is posted at Entertainment Weekly’s website, where he serves as a contributing editor on pop culture.

He is frank about the fact that, in this day and age, his own college writings would have raised flags. King also speaks about a one-time student of his who raised red flags for him . He is quick to point out, though, that, in his own case, he had none of the other signs which would have pointed to him as a possibly violent personality-he interacted with his peers, never stalked girls, etc.

The following quote from King seems to pretty well sum up his opinion on Cho’s writings and his violent state:

For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence: We visualize what we will never actually do (James Patterson, for instance, a nice man who has all too often worked the street that my old friend George used to work). Cho doesn’t strike me as in the least creative, however. Dude was crazy. Dude was, in the memorable phrasing of Nikki Giovanni, ”just mean.” Essentially there’s no story here, except for a paranoid a–hole who went DEFCON-1. 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.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not unbiased where Stephen King is concerned. I discovered King in the ’70’s during my own teen years and have been a huge fan since then. I write horror stories myself, and have come up with some pretty gruesome storylines in my time. However, as someone who has also served as a social worker in the mental health field, I have to wholeheartedly agree with him here. The writings, on their own, do not mean that a person is violent. If so, many of today’s top novelists and writers would be in mental institutions!

So, if you have, or know of, a teen who reads and/or writes horror, don’t automatically assume that he/she has a mental problem! Look for other signs, such as isolation, anti-social behavior, etc. We all worry about our kids, but let’s not let that take over our lives.

[tags]Virginia Tech, Virginia tech shootings, Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly, Cho Seung-Hui, writing, parenting teens, parenting teenagers, teen writing, teenage writing[/tags[