Yesterday at the bookstore, I saw Adam-Troy Castro's brand-new book of essays, The Unauthorized Harry Potter. It's published by Bordersgroup, so up through September it's exclusively available in Borders and Waldenbooks, as part of their marketing campaign for the upcoming Potter novel. (Although this also means it should be available at every Borders in the world.) In any case, it looks like a fun and funny book, and I was mildly tickled to see my name in the acknowledgments--no big mention, just "and also thanks to Christopher Negeilen, Brad Aiken, Ben Burgis, George Peterson and Cliff Dunbar, the members of the South Flordia Science Ficiton Society writers' workshop" or something along those lines.

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On another topic, something that should be worrying to anyone who writes fiction in general, or horror in particular:

You've probably heard by now that Virginia Tech killer Seung Cho's plays from his creative writing class are now available for public consumption, thanks to the (probably illegal) actions of AOL News in putting them on-line.

I've been increasingly disturbed by articles I've read, even in places like the New York Times and Salon, saying that these plays should have been "early warnings signs" of Cho's mental illness and tendencies towards violence. Let me put it at simply as possible:

No, they weren't.

Anyone who thinks they might have been *really* needs to broaden their reading habits.

Thinking that Cho's plays even indicate a troubling "gray area" here between writing that should get you reported to the cops at that which should not is not only a sign that the people who think it don't read or watch much, it's the kind of thing that could and does cause real harm to real people. "Vigilance" about this sort of nonsense will not prevent a single shooting. It will, however, result in innocent kids being kicked out of school over nothing.

Think I'm exaggerating? Read his plays.

Done?

OK. Forget horror. I've seen worse than this on about 200 episodes of South Park. If ambiguous evidence that characters have been sexually abused, and people sitting around talking about taking violent revenge without actually going through with it are signs of the author being a mass murderer, then forget Stephen King, the cops should keep tabs on Charles de Lint, whose literary "warning signs" are much bigger than Cho's ever were.

If having a fictional character shove a half-eating granola bar down someone's throat is a warning sign that the author is about to commit mass murder, what should we be worried about Thomas Harris doing?

Of course, even out of context, Stephen King (or pre-"Hannibal Rising" Thomas Harris) makes a better read because it's better-written, and South Park is fun to watch in a way that these plays wouldn't be because it's clever and funny. OK. And...?

On the plus side, if lack of redeeming literary merit were proof of intent to commit horrible crimes, that would be a great incentive for revising and redrafting stories.

The plays establish exactly one thing: Cho was a spectacularly bad wannabe writer who didn't understand anything but shock value. (Well, that and that his English language skills weren't perfect and he had a juvenile sense of humor. Still, out of context, none of that screams "potential mass murderer.") I expect undergrad institutions (and, as Nick Mamatas points out, slushpiles) are chock-full of bad wannabe writers who don't understand anything but shock value. Fortunately, most of them don't kill anyone.