A few days ago, I came across a recent New York Daily News article, describing how a young man in Australia has taken it upon himself to create a video game based on the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings that took place nearly a year ago last December. If one were to choose, for whatever reason, to actually play this horrid game, they would apparently be prompted to reenact not only Adam Lanza’s brutal murder of his mother, but also the mass shooting of twenty six educators and children that left our nation reeling last winter. When the family of one of the teachers asked the young man (via Twitter), “Please tell us how playing a game that recreates how (educator Victoria Soto) died would be beneficial, please tell us,” the man, Ryan Jake Lambourn, callously replied, “Sure, but you’d learn more by ‘playing it.'”
Ryan Lambourn (Courtesy of The Daily Mail)
First and foremost, I cannot imagine the immense pain and suffering that these families have gone, and continue to go through every minute of every day. Not only have they lost their loved ones, but also every day many of them find themselves the targets of conspiracy theorists who suggest that the whole Sandy Hook incident was an elaborate hoax, meant to stimulate gun control action throughout the country. And incredulously enough, these theories are not only promoted by fringe groups. Martha Dean, a candidate for Attorney General in my home state of Connecticut, actually had the nerve to share a video promoting these insane theories on her official Facebook page. In a recent statement regarding the release of this computer games as well as a constant barrage of conspiracy theories, Soto’s family responded, saying, “We constantly have to battle people who still, to this day, think Sandy Hook is a hoax. For those people I can only say I hope you never have to go through what we do as a family.”
A vigil in Newtown, CT after the Sandy Hook shooting (Courtesy of NPR)
In the past week, Lambourn has attempted to defend his computer game, calling it a statement on gun control. He also claims, as the Daily Mail describes, that “his video simulation of a mass murder is in fact art – claiming that attacking people online, or trolling, ‘is an art in itself.'” Now, I want to make it clear that I am all for freedom of expression when it comes to art. I firmly believe that there is a moral obligation to protect artists whose work may be considered controversial. That being said, I do not think that there is anything about this sick game that can be defended as art. In what way is this game provoking a discussion regarding gun control? By continuing to torture families who have already gone through the pain and heartache of losing loved ones over and over again? I am not arguing that Lambourn does not have the right to make this game. However, I must agree with Victoria Soto’s family when I say there is absolutely nothing beneficial about what he has done.
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 