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Chicago Asian student arrested for questionable creative writing essay

I'm sort of torn on this one. Considering what happened at VA tech, the kid should have known better than to write something like that. Doing so was either pure stupidity or begging for negative attention. But, at the same time, if he was told not to censor his work, he shouldn't have been arrested. He should have quietly received a zero, been scolded, and told that he's an idiot. Something along those lines, at any rate.
 
It's hardly an arrestable offense, is it? If so, Richard Laymon should have been arrested a long time ago.
 
Perhaps he should have considered that something like this would impact his chances of pursuing his chosen career. Be it an academic, corporate or any other kind of environment, there are political games to be played and inexplicitly stated standards of conduct and expectations.
That said he’s young, probably impulsive and, like most teenagers, more keen on figuring out how to get laid or get his rocks off instead of spending his idle time ruminating on how putting his gun-toting-necrophile dreams down on paper would influence his long term career plans.

He probably found it funny - and just because someone *doesn’t* express themselves violently in writing it doesn’t mean that they *won’t* be a raving psychopath once you give them a bit of authority, some guns and ammo and send them overseas, all hopped up and ready to do some damage.

My main criticisms of the boy’s work are that it’s a bit too stream of consciousness and the fact that his handwriting sucks – he should have typed it.

The violent content doesn’t bother me. I write violent and sordid stuff and yet I haven’t taken an axe to anyone’s head, lopped it off and then rubbed it all over my naked self, cooing like a pigeon….but maybe it would be funny if I did.
*sigh*


pooh_bah


PS.: I don’t remember whether Ted Kaczynski’s (quiet lad, high achiever, good mathematician, educated to a postgraduate level, looked like real marriage material on paper) manifesto was explicitly violent. If I recall correctly (and maybe I do not) it was unreasonable more than anything else and not very convincing. Yet he still blew the heck out of a few people.
If I get arrested for anything I wonder whether they’ll make something out of the fact that there’s a copy of his manifesto somewhere on my computer? An electronic copy of TK’s manifesto – oh the irony.
Dahmer had his black altar, but you could argue that some teenage goths do too (with out the real human bones) and as far as I know, they don’t get drunk, go to work at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory (now sadly closed) come home and eat people. If anyone’s interested, I hear that Charles Ng is looking for pen pals to pass the time while on Death Row at San Quentin.
 
Perhaps he should have considered that something like this would impact his chances of pursuing his chosen career. Be it an academic, corporate or any other kind of environment, there are political games to be played and inexplicitly stated standards of conduct and expectations.
That said he’s young, probably impulsive and, like most teenagers, more keen on figuring out how to get laid or get his rocks off instead of spending his idle time ruminating on how putting his gun-toting-necrophile dreams down on paper would influence his long term career plans.

He probably found it funny - and just because someone *doesn’t* express themselves violently in writing it doesn’t mean that they *won’t* be a raving psychopath once you give them a bit of authority, some guns and ammo and send them overseas, all hopped up and ready to do some damage.

My main criticisms of the boy’s work are that it’s a bit too stream of consciousness and the fact that his handwriting sucks – he should have typed it.

The violent content doesn’t bother me. I write violent and sordid stuff and yet I haven’t taken an axe to anyone’s head, lopped it off and then rubbed it all over my naked self, cooing like a pigeon….but maybe it would be funny if I did.
*sigh*

With a wire crossed in his head, he probably thought he was making some cutting edge commentary about society a la Tarantino.:rolleyes:

PS.: I don’t remember whether Ted Kaczynski’s (quiet lad, high achiever, good mathematician, educated to a postgraduate level, looked like real marriage material on paper) manifesto was explicitly violent. If I recall correctly (and maybe I do not) it was unreasonable more than anything else and not very convincing. Yet he still blew the heck out of a few people.

It wasn't, just another Luddite piece about how society is going down the sewer with the rise of progress. His analysis fails as he and others like him are just failed remnants of globalization. Modern day hand-loom weavers.

If I get arrested for anything I wonder whether they’ll make something out of the fact that there’s a copy of his manifesto somewhere on my computer? An electronic copy of TK’s manifesto – oh the irony.

Well, it could explain your motive should you do something like that, but no, the manifesto is very much "out there" in regards to the net and general public information. There really isn't any irony there IMHO.

Dahmer had his black altar, but you could argue that some teenage goths do too (with out the real human bones)

Oh, I agree. The bones definitely put Dahmer's collection in a whole new light.:eek:

and as far as I know, they don’t get drunk, go to work at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory (now sadly closed) come home and eat people.

Yeah, I think that's the role management.

If anyone’s interested, I hear that Charles Ng is looking for pen pals to pass the time while on Death Row at San Quentin.

I don't get why anyone would write a famous prisoner. I understand the unstable woman or man who sends marriage proposals, but they're just wacked in the head to begin with. Some might mail "political prisoners" or whatever that means in the U.S. Something inside of me just has a problem communicating with someone who planted a bomb near a police car and killed an officer. The people at your coffeehouse or library are much more likeable. Kind of like people here.:)
 
I think it's fairly ironic that there are so many electronic copies of a manifesto that decries technological advancement. ; p

Normal folks are curious about people who are regarded as different, aberrant or deviant in some way. This happens on a much smaller scale in every day life – the girl next door who likes bad boys. The regular, normal guys who like eccentric women with mental problems. (One of my best friends is like this – show him a good looking loony and he’ll jump to attention every time).

But I totally agree with you – lining up outside the courthouse or the penitentiary to profess undying love for a murderer or yearning to carry a psychopath’s love child is pretty extreme. Being interested in their personalities and motivations is understandable (to me) but wanting to be very close to them is not very smart in my opinion.
Lots of feminist / academic writing about hypermasculinity in contemporary culture and the lure of it all. When I was young and foolish I wrote an academic paper on what types embody this notion (I mentioned serial killers and rock stars just for fun – very stuffy ‘old’ university I attended, wanted to force them to read something they didn’t want to) and how it affects specific feminine constructs yadda yadda.

Back to the boy and his essay – teenagers write all kinds of b*llsh*t. If you were dredge up every filthy note I passed in class (not to mention the rude pictures – gawd they weren’t even well drawn) and judge me on those bits and pieces, well I’d come across like a bigger *sshat than I actually am. Thankfully I don’t draw any more.

So people here are friendly? : )
Good to know. I’m new here. I like friendly people.

Have a good day SFG75.
 
Anybody should be able to write anything they want, and only be arrested if their writing indicates that they will bring harm to others or theirselves.

For many of history's creative minds, such as Edgar Allen Poe, such thoughts would not have been rare or unacceptable. It is valid to contemplate the morose and the shocking. But it is quite stupid to do it for a highschool writing class. That's not the correct forum in which to express one's darkest, profoundest thoughts.

If somebody wishes to write something like that, it would not be wise to submit it as a piece for a class. They should share it with those close to them, if they are an accomplished writer present it to the interested public. His lack of prudence makes me doubt he was honestly trying to be expressive and deep, rather that he was trying to be morbid for its own sake, or for the sake of humour.

It was imprudent, but nothing he should be arrested for. I also disagree that he should have been scolded or given a zero. He would have recieved whatever feedback he deserved from the classmates.

I also would have, however, reversed his application to join the Marines were I the recruitment officer. Especially hailing from near the region that Marines often come to, I wouldn't want somebody with those thoughts to be in the United States Marine Corps.

Conclusion: He was dumb to share a piece like that with just anybody. It was dumb to punish him for it.
 
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