Like watching a train wreck
Apr. 18th, 2007 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alanajoliI haven't commented about the devastating shootings at VT because I haven't really known what to say. I can't really process what that kind of violence means, any better than I can process the number of U. S. Soldiers and Iraqis who have died. I don't know how to mourn for the families, students, and professors at VT except to keep them in my thoughts and prayers.
There is certainly a morbid fascination with the event played out through the media, including a post over at News Blogger.com that shares some of the shooter's creative writing as insight into why the event might have happened. I'm frankly not interested in reading disturbing plays by a murderer, but the comments of those who did fascinated me. From critiques on the quality of the writing, to people assuming that the plays must reflect the shooter's home life, to people who blame Muslims and illegal aliens for all the violence in the United States--it just boggles my mind how others are coping with the tragedy.
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jeff_duntemann has written several entries lately about why people blog the way they do--how the online format has become the place where people can vent, setting aside all social restrictions they would experience in real life. Because I don't visit a lot of forums, I don't see much of that. But here, in a response to a former classmate having posting the writings of a serial killer, I saw exactly what he's talking about. Reading through those comments was like watching a train wreck, terrible and unfortunately fascinating. I can't help but think that the kind of dialog I was seeing over there somehow detracts from the weight of the tragedy.
There is certainly a morbid fascination with the event played out through the media, including a post over at News Blogger.com that shares some of the shooter's creative writing as insight into why the event might have happened. I'm frankly not interested in reading disturbing plays by a murderer, but the comments of those who did fascinated me. From critiques on the quality of the writing, to people assuming that the plays must reflect the shooter's home life, to people who blame Muslims and illegal aliens for all the violence in the United States--it just boggles my mind how others are coping with the tragedy.
jeff_duntemann has written several entries lately about why people blog the way they do--how the online format has become the place where people can vent, setting aside all social restrictions they would experience in real life. Because I don't visit a lot of forums, I don't see much of that. But here, in a response to a former classmate having posting the writings of a serial killer, I saw exactly what he's talking about. Reading through those comments was like watching a train wreck, terrible and unfortunately fascinating. I can't help but think that the kind of dialog I was seeing over there somehow detracts from the weight of the tragedy.
