Richard Rushfield, former entertainment editor of LATimes.com and Gawker, has authored a tell-all memoir of his education at Hampshire College, “Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost.” Founded in 1970 as an alternative university, Hampshire had — according to Rushfield —fallen off the deep end by the time he arrived.
How have you dealt with the backlash?
It wasn’t unexpected. This book is a portrayal of a specific time that wasn’t their finest hour. Certainly, the specter of students not going to class for an entire year isn’t something they would put on their promotional literature.
Why were the standards so different in the ’80s?
It was an affluent era in America. I don’t think today’s students could go through four years of any college without having any sense of what they’re going to do when they graduate.
But you’re an ambitious writer now. Did this experience help you find that?
I spent most of [my 20s] drifting around in jobs with no real plan. I bottomed out on that, and somehow writing presented itself. Now I’ve thrown myself into that with the energy I once threw into sitting on the couch for a week straight.
