Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site teddy.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!teddy!lkk From: lkk@teddy.UUCP Newsgroups: net.suicide,net.games.frp,net.kids Subject: Re: Suicide and D&D (Re: Violence and the arts) Message-ID: <1198@teddy.UUCP> Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 15:09:37 EDT Article-I.D.: teddy.1198 Posted: Fri Aug 23 15:09:37 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 00:32:34 EDT References: <6601@ucla-cs.ARPA> <449@im4u.UUCP> Reply-To: lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney) Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass. Lines: 28 Xref: watmath net.suicide:710 net.games.frp:1859 net.kids:1735 Summary: In article <449@im4u.UUCP> riddle@im4u.UUCP writes: >I'm no fan of the culture of violence, but the case for linking D&D with >suicide seems to be overstated. Interested readers can take a look at page >18 of today's New York Times. It seems that a group of fundamentalists in >Connecticut is trying to get the local school board to ban Dungeons and >Dragons from the schools, on the grounds that D&D caused a 13-year-old boy >to commit suicide and is the work of the devil to boot. The kid's friends >tell reporters that it wasn't D&D that made him kill himself, but drugs. >Chalk another one up for the fundamentalists' grip on reality... I personally don't see how drugs are any more likely to make someone kill themselves than D & D is. Both are ways of finding alternate realities. Some people use drugs (or play D & D) because their everyday reality is unpleasant (while others have different reasons). These people might kill themselves because their (perceived) life stinks, but drugs are unlikely to actually cause that. Drug use and D & D playing were (it is likely) BOTH symptoms in this case. -- Sport Death, Larry Kolodney (USENET) ...decvax!genrad!teddy!lkk (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa