But yet, there are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here to-night. Our path through life is strewn with many such sad memories: and were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living. We have all of us living duties and living affections which claim, and rightly claim, our strenuous endeavours.

James Joyce, The Dead

As you might imagine, the revelation that Virginia Tech madman Cho Seung-Hui was an English major resulted in some lively pre-class talk in English classes on campus today. That he’s a creative writing major — the same as your truly — is particularly disturbing.

How fitting that we were discussing James Joyce’s The Dead in my night class this evening. The above passage was particularly striking. I wonder if Dr. A wondered why I choked up in the middle of trying to make a point about it - I was trying to relate it to the theme of the story, but I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was saying.

I arrived on campus very early — 7:30am — to write a short-story for tonight’s class (there’s nothing like procrastination). I was struck by the lack of police I saw: I’d figured there’d be a cop at every building. And indeed, later in the day, they were quite noticeable. A lot of the folks gathered outside of Linthicum Hall for smoke breaks between classes discussed VTech’s response to the massacre, not in terms of VTech’s decision and the rightness or wrongness of that decision, but what would Towson do in a similar circumstance?

Towson’s Towerlight published a special issue today on the shooting and student reaction. Particularly noticeable was the last page, where students are stopped in the hall, asked for a quote, and have their photo taken. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that a lot of students today looked at the back of the paper and said “Should these students all be smiling like this?” Apparently, the photos were removed from the online PDF file (or they just won’t load on my computer for some reason) so I can’t provide an illustration.

Because I need a laugh - and because you might too - I point out to you a quote from Dan Keenan, a freshman chemistry major. “Yeah, I feel safe because I go hard every single day.”

Um. Yeah, wow Dan, I usually just take a cold shower or masturbate so that people don’t ask me “Is that a howitzer in your pants or are you just happy to see me?”