Chicago students in fiction

JHS
Sun, 13 May 2018 07:57:58 +0000

Saul Bellow’s Herzog and Ravelstein are not likely to inspire many 18-year-olds to want similar experiences, but they are full of University of Chicago color, and the latter is very much a roman a clef about the university.

On a less elevated plane: Chris Columbus’ first film, Adventures in Babysitting, has a very young, very hot Elizabeth Shue and her charges visiting a University of Chicago frat party that pretty much seems like a frat party.

I don’t know if it counts, but the first film in the Divergent series (umm . . . Divergent) was mostly located in a future Chicago that stood for hell on Earth. The bad-guy Erudite faction appropriately has its headquarters in the Mansueto Library.