Never Be Bored
26 June 2019
The Northwestern Edition
Helicon Literary & Arts Magazine. The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck; Smylie Bros & Bar Louie restaurants; student productions.
I graduated from Northwestern University last week, with a degree in applied mathematics from the McCormick School of Engineering, and minors in computer science and pure mathematics. Which is wild. Rather than attempt to wax poetic about these past four years, here is instead a Never Be Bored post inspired by my time in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago.
Helicon Literary & Arts Magazine was founded in 1979 and has been publishing undergraduate art, poetry, and prose ever since, making it the longest running literary magazine at Northwestern. Looking for a change of pace from my engineering classes, I joined art staff as a sophomore, then I was the managing editor, and this past year (for my sins), I was the editor in chief. I adore this magazine. I loved all our meetings discussing the submissions we'd received—debating the merits of line breaks, drinking wine, googling possible references, swearing we wouldn't take another study abroad snapshot.
Here, then, are some of my favorite pieces we've published. For poetry, Three by Jack Drumm (I can still see that year's editor in chief, arms thrown wide, saying: "Blanket me, Ursa Major!"), This One's Me by Syd Shaw, On Recitation by Jack Drummond. For prose, There's No Need For Mirrors Here by Mason McVeigh, In Conversation with a Hand Model (Whose Palms May or May Not Be Containing the Universe) by Emma Kupor, Contact by Katie Way. For art, Let Me Tell You by Erin Gregory (how we in art staff fought for this one to be included!), Cassandra by Ellie Levine, Growth by Helena Scholz-Carlson.
I have it on good authority from another Helicon editor who was the neighbor of the architect of the Main Library of Northwestern University, that said library was indeed at least somewhat inspired by the short story The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges. I can't count the late nights I spent there working on problem sets, and it feels very Correct that such a place was inspired by a piece of fiction which also inspired the novella A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck.
If you ever find yourself in Evanston, there are two restaurants that have a special place in my heart. Smylie Bros was where two of my applied math friends took me for a Purple Line beer (seasonal, Bavarian, fruity) for my twenty first birthday, and it's been our go-to place when it's the three of us ever since. Bar Louie is the place where you could find me and a friend with our burgers and tots just about every Thursday this last quarter. It's the place to be at eight, when trivia night starts and the martinis are half price (there's a location in downtown Chicago, too).
One thing I'll miss about being a student is all the shows happening around campus every weekend. I have perfect attendance at the neofuturist theater group TBD's quarterly shows, I saw the Waa Mu show (a student written musical) every year. I've seen most of the a cappella groups at least once (some of my favorite songs they've done include "Ride" by the Treblemakers, "Still I Rise" by Brown Sugar, and "Hold Back the River" by Purple Haze). I think the last production I saw was Bright Star, an excellent blues musical; there's a staged reading of it on YouTube here.