May 4, 2015

40 Pages·2015·4.61 MB·English

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STUCK IN THE LIBRARY MAY 4, 2015
Our Staff:
Paulette Gindi President
Florencia Salinas Vice President
Page 4
Dovie Eisner Editor in Chief

Prompt 1: Kami Salman Chief of Publications
Yoni Akerman Treasurer

Horrible Aaron Abramov Incoming Treasurer
cliché Chana Beylin Senior Editor
Dassy Heinemann Senior Editor
Faiza Khalid Senior Editor
Lovashni Khalikaprasad Senior Editor
Merav Kraitenberger Senior Editor
Moshe Bressler Associate Editor
Page 7
Amanda Lanter Assistant Editor
(Elkie)

Prompt 2: Carolyn Aboudi Assistant Editor
Jillian Lanter Assistant Editor
Which path (Ariella)
Karen Shaefer Assistant Editor
will you
Reneé Esses Assistant Editor
chose?
Ari Ziegler Senior Member of Event Committee
Courtney Takats Senior Member of Event Committee
Aaron Guyette Associate Member of Event Committee
Effie Klestzick Associate Member of Event Committee
Shalom Lichtenstein Associate Member of Event Committee
Page 18 Daniel Bressler Assistant Member of Event Committee
Gitty Davidson Assistant Member of Event Committee
Prompt 3:
Regina Menahem Assistant Member of Event Committee
Yoni Stern Assistant Member of Event Committee
BC’s clock
Mo Khan Chairperson of Stuck in the Cafeteria
tower.
Constantine Onishchenko Photographer
Mohammad Nasrullah Photographer
(Chomio)
Sean Bowen Photographer
Sanjida Bintekamal Photographer
Salomeya Lomidze Head Videographer
Rony Portillo Videographer
Page 25

Prompt 4:
Stuck in the Library aims to facilitate a space where creativity can flourish by creating
a magazine which publishes often and encourages its enthusiasts to meet its contribu-
Make us cry. tors, resulting in a thriving literary sphere in Brooklyn College.

C W :
ONTRIBUTING RITERS
Aaron Guyette Avraham Steinhardt Gabriel Pariente Niseno
Ahuva Buchbinder Bernard Akshay Gomes Jacob Woodbourne Ying Wu
Algonquin Jones E. P. S. Jensine Sajan Yuliya Young
Arooj Alam Faiza Lauren Cohen Zahava Glucksman
Moshe Bressler

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STUCK IN THE LIBRARY MAY 4, 2015
Dear Readers,

With the semester concluding, and the last edition of
Stuck in the Library of the year in your hands, I urge
PAULETTE GINDI you to feel the progression of this literary production.
By that I mean the development into a masterpiece to
President
be admired by those who encounter it.

By next year, I plan on developing STL’s website,
along with its logo, color scheme (it’s about time we were
other than black and white), and overall
schematic. However, these details are merely pastels
FLO SALINAS to a canvas – much is known about the need for
artists.
Vice President

This where I believe a stepping stone towards success
is necessary. After all Mark Twain once said, the only
time success comes before work is in the
dictionary. This is where I point to you, reader. Do
you want to help paint this masterpiece? Do you want
DOVIE EISNER to partake in creating something amazing?
Editor in Chief
With the effort and time put forth into creative
endeavors, we will succeed as a group and take Stuck
in the Library to the next level. Enjoy these tiny
words plastered onto these sheets. Good luck on
finals and have a marvelous summer.
KAMI SALMAN
Chief of Publications PAULETTE GINDI

President of Stuck in the Library
CONTRIBUTING VISUAL ARTISTS:
Constantine Onishchenko
SALLY LOMIZDE
Kristina Markovic
Head Videographer
Merav Kreitenberger
Mohammad (Chomio) Nasrullah
Taisha Brehaut
Zen Khan
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Prompt 1:

Write a horrible cliche.
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DE RERUM MORTIS
By: Zahava Glucksman

Lucretius, do you believe in the gods?
Setting: 55 BC, in a murky and dark limbo of an

afterlife. The soul of Socrates approaches the newly
Lucretius: Of course, the gods. However, they do not
deceased Lucretius and begins to philosophize about the
meddle in the affairs of the mortals.
afterlife.

Socrates: And what is this world made of?
Socrates: Ah, Lucretius, I have long awaited your

arrival. It’s a pity you died so young, you have so much
Lucretius: Void and atoms, that’s why there is no need
more to learn.
to worry about the afterlife, the soul is not immortal—

Lucretius: Socrates? This must be a dream. Where am
Socrates: Who created the void and atoms the world is
I?
made up of?

Socrates: Welcome to the afterlife. I have been sent here
Lucretius: The gods, of course.
by the gods to welcome you and ask you to join us.

Socrates: Does that affect your life? Could an individual
Lucretius: There is no such thing as an afterlife. (scoffs)
live without these voids and atoms?
I have already achieved the maximum level of greatness

by reaching ataraxia. Your silly tricks will not worry me.
Lucretius: No.

Socrates: But Lucretius, this is in fact the gateway to
Socrates: It seems that the gods are meddling then.
greatness; I came here in my death, with the taste of
Creating one thing so that another could affect a mortal.
hemlock still glued to my lips, tasting bitterer than
Lucretius, tell me, are you not a pious individual?
Athenian politics. And now, I spend my days with the

gods learning philosophy from the best. Tell me
Lucretius: I am. Epicureanism values virtue.
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—who do you think made sure your book got FOUR
Socrates: I too was not confident as to what happens POINT FIVE STARS ON AMAZON HUH!? You think
after death, whether our immortal souls would be sucked
that kinda stuff just happens?! (throws a lightning bolt at
into a life after death or we would all be destined to
Lucretius, knocking him out of the afterlife) How do you
oblivion. But you are here now, and the gods want you
to believe there is life after death. Would it not be like me now, meddling in affairs!?
impious to disregard their desires?
Hera (Juno): Please Zeus, let’s not talk about affairs.
Lucretius: I suppose it would.

Zeus: Hey, that reminds me…I’ll be back later…that
Socrates: Well then, Lucretius, please step this way and
new nymph just moved in next door. Don’t wait up-
you will enter a place more beautiful than dawn
leave some ambrosia on the stove for me.
descending down on a clear spring day.

Chorus: So now dear reader
Lucretius: Socrates, I am ready to enter the afterlife and
The soul of Lucretius is dead
accept the immortality of my soul.
For Zeus gave him a knock on his head

And now he lay in the neighbor’s bed
(Socrates and Lucretius leave limbo to enter a beautiful
While Hera is plotting to off that nymph’s head
flowing garden filled with gods and goddesses sipping
Socrates is watching dawn rise with her fingers rosy
ambrosia and nectar)
red—

Zeus (Jupiter): WHAT THE HELL LUCRETIUS!? (in
Hera: Shut up chorus, those works didn’t use choruses.
mocking tone) ‘Doesn’t meddle in the affairs of mortals’
Go bother Aristophanes.
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MONSTER INFESTATION Jeremy pulled out the haiku that the monsters had

scrawled upon their arrival and read his fate with trem-
By: Moshe Bressler
bling hands.

It was 10:00 pm on Eastern Drive and in the Froudlin

house, things were getting rather unsettled. “Jeremey! I’m

not going to say it again! Its way past your bedtime!”

Mom’s voice rang out like a bell across the empty cold

lawn.

Sounds of small shouting and scuffling that could have

only been Jeremy returned in protest. “Mom! I can’t go to

bed now! There are legit monsters beneath my bed! They

moved in last week and won’t move out until they EAT

ME!” Illustration by: Moshe Bressler

The jeering began.
SMACK! Moms voice yelled sternly, “You must go to

bed now! This is no time for a 10 year old to be up.” Jere-
“…listen here delicious Jeremy, let us eat you with dinner
my started crying and screaming.
and tea.”

Mom dragged Jeremy up the stairs and hauled him off to
“Come beneath your bed –we’ll be real nice, let us cook
bed. She ripped off the sheets and bent below the bed.
you with black pepper spice.”
They were there! All of them! Their ugly green faces

twitched and their watery eyes waited. “You see? There
“Evil monsters are really your buddies, after we roast you
are no monsters here.” Jeremy screamed “They are
and put you in our tummies.”
RIGHT there! Mom save me!” His Mom sighed a deep

frustrated groan. “They are just in your imagination,
Poor Jeremy hunched in fear the whole night. By the time
monsters are not real, see?”
the sun rose and the monsters disappeared again, he col-

lapsed in utter exhaustion. SHAKE SHAKE. “Time to
AHHHHHH! They are RIGHT there Mom!”
wake up for school!” Jeremy’s Mom woke him from his

much needed slumber.
The monsters cackled, “Don’t you know –you stupid

child –grownups can’t see us! We’re gonna eat you for
As he shuffled to school, as tired as he had ever been,
sure now!” “I’ll never let you eat me! Even if I have to
Jeremy thought to himself, “Man! This has got to end
stay up forever!” Suddenly Jeremy’s Mom stood up. “My
soon! Otherwise I’ll dose off and they’ll eat my bones for
God! You’re talking to yourself now. This silly imagina-
breakfast!” As he walked his long and winding walk to
tion game must stop now. Whew! Do I need a long nap
school, he could not help but overhear some eighth grad-
and an aspirin.”
ers talking about boarding school.

As the door slammed behind Mom’s growing shadow,
“I heard the food is the best in VanVelkenberg Prep!
Jeremy picked up his flashlight. As long as he made a
They have a yogurt factory right next door and the boys
protective tent under his blankets with a flashlight, the
sneak out and steal fresh yogurt every night!” “Oh yeah!
monsters will not be able to harm him. He huddled, terri-
My brother is there and he already gained 10 pounds in 1
fied, for he knew that the instance he fell asleep or the
month because the boys eat dessert for main course and
light turned off – he’ll be dead meat.
for dessert they have just the powdered sugar and cherries

from the first dessert.”
7 By: Taisha Brehaut
“You know what they best part of VanVelkenberg Prep He whipped out the folded brochure to VanVelkenberg
is? You can make as much trouble as you want because at Prep, “Take this booklet, it’s a menu for the fattest most
night nobody makes sure you’re sleepin!” horrible troublemakers around. You’ll be happy in Van-
Velk I know for sure. Just leave me alone and move out
“Wow! This sounds so awesome!” right now!”

No it doesn’t! Jeremy thought to himself. Actually, shud- The monsters growled and they twitched, they scowled
dered just at the thought of going to such a dreadful insti- and they itched. The ugliest of all -clearly the leader,
tution. Wait a second… Fat boys? No bed-
time? Troublemakers….? I think I have
the answer to my monster infestation!

On Jeremy’s way out from lunch recess
that day, he stopped by at the office and
asked for the VanVelkenberg Prepetory
School brochure. The old crinkly secretary
Ms. Evans raised her penciled eyebrows as
she handed him the booklet. That old witch! She never cleared his throat and said “We’re gonna leave here.”
talks! She just gives you the eyebrows and stinks you up
with her deadly smelling perfume! Jeremy breathed a “This menu of children –the most horrible in sight, will
huge sigh of relief when he got out of the office since he taste so yummy and delicious –lets go there tonight! Fat
was actually holding his breath the whole time inside. boys and troublemakers are my most favorite kind, so it’s
time to head –that is –if you don’t mind.”

And just like that, one by one. They ugly mean monsters
crawled out from under the bed. One by one they left for
good. Each had their suitcase, coat suit and tie, and they
said, “Farewell young Jeremy, I guess this is goodbye.”

…4 years later… “Jeremy! We are so proud of you get-
ting a full scholarship to this prep school out in the coun-
try! I have never heard of it before, and it’s so strange
getting full tuition for free only days before the school
year starts.” Jeremey was all proud sitting in his Mom’s
car driving up in the country. “What a bright boy you are!
I can’t wait to see the ground.”
That night, by the time 9:30 came around, Jeremy was
already in bed “fast asleep.” He was actually waiting for As they pulled up to the school, Jeremey stomach lurched
his mom to disappear so he could finally get rid of those and he felt sick. They walked to the front door and it
horrible ugly monsters. As soon as the cackling and jeer- creaked open. A tall dark figure walked out and shook his
ing began, Jeremy ripped off his covers and shone his mom’s hand. “I am the headmaster Mr. Zildrool, and I
flashlight right at those horrible monsters faces! They must now welcome young Jeremy to our school.” As he
howled in pain, eyes red at the corners. “Turn off that shook Jeremy’s hand, he let out an evil familiar cackle.
horrible horrible light! It’s dark and it’s the middle of the Jeremy screamed on top of his lungs as he tried to wrestle
night!” “I won’t turn it off, never in a million years, I his hand out of the green scaly grasp.
want you out of here tonight!” Jeremy declared bravely. …to be continued…
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NO PROMOTION THIS YEAR
Diana was dreaming her last dream, a happy dream of
By Ahuva Buchbinder smiling moons, happy birds, and good weather, a dream
of home. In her dream, she saw herself as she had last
Furga's steed, Chu Kwai, clip-clopped softly into the 43rd seen herself in the mirror before she had departed from
alley of the night. It was 2 in the morning. The sweet, heaven to walk on this accursed Earth four weeks ago,
putrid odor of dead stray cat mixed with about 50 years’ with sexy, wild strawberry blonde hair, perfect skin that
worth of poopy diapers hit Furga's nostrils especially hard conveyed youth not only by its utter clarity but also by
due to the 90 degree heat. Chu Kwai pawed the ground, the presence of a few freckles, and a midriff-baring dark-
but stopped quickly when something warm and squishy blue shirt.
got on his hoof.
This was not how she looked now. Her hair was an ashy
"Furga, do we have to stay here?" he neighed quietly. blonde, with a calmer long-waved texture, her skin was
still clear, but it had lost its youthful radiance, and she
"Mushrooms grow where there is decay," Furga answered was wearing a relatively modest white toga which
shortly. "And we need the magic mushrooms. Abaddon screamed respectability in a way that the midriff-baring
Himself sent us to find them." shirts and mini-skirts and combat boots she had favored
in heaven just didn't. If she would have awoken and seen
Furga crouched down on his stumpy brown-green legs, herself in a mirror, she would have been devastated at her
pressing his loincloth to his body so it wouldn't touch the appearance.
ground, to see what the moonlight was bouncing off of.
There was a round window with a grate just above the Furga's jaw dropped. It was Diana the Goddess! He'd
ground. Perhaps the magic mushrooms he had been recognized her immediately even though, as low-ranking
searching for over the past 3 years would be growing on demon, he had never seen her in person. Diana the
the other side of this window. It was a curious practice of Goddess was in charge of the Pretty Toga-Wearing Gods
these Earthlings to store their pets in basements—and cats and Goddesses Benevolent Society, the prissiest
and dogs would often kill an animal for sport and leave organization in Heaven.
the carcass around to decay, and their humans were too
lazy to clean it up. This organization was officially in charge of killing the
magic mushrooms, although the word on the street was
The basement Furga was peering into certainly smelled of that the high ranking people in the Pretty Toga-Wearing
decay. There was the usual moisture—he could hear a Gods and Goddesses Benevolent Society didn't really aim
dripdripdrip that was rapidly starting to drive him mad, to wipe out the magic mushrooms, but to monopolize
and his overly sensitive demon nose could pick out water them. Whoever controlled the supply of mushrooms was
immediately—but more importantly, he could see the effectively in charge of life in all of the worlds.
water drip dripping.
This was because, as anyone who had received a basic
This was because, in the middle of the cold black stone Otherwordly education knew, a potion made with ground-
floor was a luxuriously made up mattress with red up magic mushrooms was released into the waterways of
blankets, and on that mattress lay...a goddess. She was all the worlds and caused the creatures in those worlds to
obviously a goddess, he knew that by her shockingly feel lust. If the creatures in all of the worlds did not feel
white tunic that couldn't naturally be that white in such a lust, then they would not reproduce and there would be no
dingy place. Her skin glowed in the dark as she slept, one for the otherworldly Gods, Goddesses and Demons to
supinely, divinely, but even as he watched, her skin lost rule over. With no one to rule over, the Gods, Goddesses
some of its luminescence. and Demons themselves would die.

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All thoughts of hunting for magic mushrooms went out of looking pretty and getting others to do things for them
Furga's head. If he could somehow get control of Diana, instead of doing actual physical work. This was the only
why, Abaddon would have more magic mushrooms than way that he, a demon of low rank, could be having such
he'd know what to do with! More importantly, he, Furga, an easy victory over such a high-ranking goddess. "Let's
would rise to the rank of second-to-the-demon-king if he talk about the magic mushrooms. As you are no doubt
could accomplish such a feat. aware, there is a shortage of them in the Otherworld at the
moment. I need to get a year's supply to Abaddon. You
"We're going in there," he hissed to Chu Kwai. "Diana the have the mushrooms. I think that we can either come to
Goddess is in there!" an agreement or I can just sit here for a long time."

With 3 swift kicks from Chu Kwai's front hooves, the "I will be a martyr for the cause," Diana glared up at him.
window swung in on its hinges. Furga, a small demon,
barely squeezed through, but Chu Kwai, as a mist-demon- "So it's true. You really do have them. You're not killing
steed, was able to pass into the basement with ease. them. You save them for yourself!" Furga declared
triumphantly.

Diana's silence was all the answer he needed.

"You know that because of your stupid organization the
entire universe is going to die, right? How can you be so
selfish, letting the universe rot and die just so that it can
Once they were in the basement, it became apparent that remain true to your twisted version of purity? What good
whoever owned this dungeon—for once inside it was is perfection if it's dead?"
impossible to think of it as anything else—was able to
keep Diana there by regularly tipping a powder up her "It won't die," Diana whimpered. "I have the mushrooms,
nose, as the only thing in the room aside from Diana and okay?"
her mattress was a bedside table with 2 containers of
purple mucoid powder and a tipping box that bore traces "GIVE THEM TO ME,” Furga leaned forward, his rough
of the powder. palms reaching the base of her neck, pressing his weight
into her. Her form, perfect as only a goddess's can be,
Furga marched up to the sleeping Diana's head. She was gave under him, distracting him from his original goal of
much taller in person than she was in pictures. His only choking her.
physical advantage against her was his density. He sat
down on her abdomen, right above her hip bones. Chu He was unpleasantly aware that he was helpless,
Kwai settled at the foot of the bed. spellbound by such a body. A crazy idea, brought on by
his own involuntary reaction, came to him. "YOU JUST
Diana gasped. The sudden increase in pressure on her WANT THE MUSHROOMS SO YOU CAN GIVE
kidneys after a lifetime of weightlessness was incredibly THEM TO THE HIGHEST RANKING GODS,
painful. "Get off of me, you filthy beast!" she shouted, SEDUCE THEM, KILL THEM AND SEIZE THE
flailing weakly. HIGHEST DEITY POSITION FOR YOURSELF!"

You know that no one can hear you, right?" Furga leered Diana's eyes opened wide. How had this nasty little
down at her. His blood was singing in his veins. A weak demon of low rank seen through her so easily? He was
punch of hers glanced off of his chest harmlessly. It pressed into her, clearly enjoying her body, and she could
dawned on him that Pretty Toga-Wearing Gods and not get rid of him.
Goddesses had chosen to channel their strength into
Photograph by: Constantine Onishchenko
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