John Phipps

In Bennington it was a badge of dishonour not to have slept with your professor

A new eight-part podcast recounts the era when three literary superstars joined the class of ’86 at Bennington College

Bret Easton Ellis in 1987, who turned up to Bennington with the face of a wounded teddy bear and a suitcase full of class-A drugs. Photo: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images 
issue 06 November 2021

It is incredibly hard to convey the fleeting invincibility and passionate self-significance that we feel on the cusp of adulthood. Youth goes: the skin fades, the face slackens, the lower back begins to groan in protest. The world dims and we dim with it. Yet generally speaking, we’re as personally winded by that realisation as we are indifferent to it in others.

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