Posts by Gina Barreca
May 21, 2012, 11:15 AM ET
When Your Computer Betrays You
Christian is my computer Godfather: he's in total control of the
whole system--the computer at home, the laptop, the computers at
work, and my husband's computer as well. If you met Christian,
you'd understand why we trust him with our technology (and
therefore a big part of our writing lives): His quick intelligence
is as obvious as it is reassuring. This is a mensch; this is young
man who can fix and do everything. He has a big-time full-time job,
goes to law school at night, and works this electronic and computer
enterprise as a side business. But if you saw him right now, on
this beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon as he sits in front of the
Mac on my desk when he and his lovely wife Jennifer--they are both
former students--wish he would just come home already, you wouldn't
see him as an emerging Marlon Brando in Coppola's film. His
expression right now is more like the one Brando had...
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February 21, 2012, 03:21 PM ET
40 Movies Your Students Probably Don't Know
Fully two-thirds of my students
are writing screenplays. I bet yours are, too. (Really, just ask
for a show of hands. If two-thirds of them don’t have their hands
up, it’s because those who are writing screenplays at that moment
haven’t yet heard your question.) Yet the only thing they know
about movie history is that The Lion King is really cool
and that Pacino’s Scarface contains the line, “Say ‘hello’
to my little friend.” And even the ones who are not currently
writing screenplays consider themselves film buffs although--since
“buff” is not a word a lot of them use except when discussing the
male physique--they often just say, “I really, really like films. I
know quite a bit about them, actually.” What that means, as it
turns out, is that they all saw Star Wars, The Little Mermaid,
Babe, The Notebook, Titanic and Pretty Woman, but
pretty much nothing before...
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January 30, 2012, 05:26 PM ET
How Do You Greet Your Colleagues?
Let me rephrase that: When you see them, do you greet your
colleagues at all? I would like to think that there are charming
colleges where faculty members not only brighten up and smile when
they see each other, but actually stop to shake hands, chat and
exchange pleasantries. But I also like the idea that there
are still houses with thatched roofs. I know that it’s simply not
practical in this contemporary, hectic and increasingly impersonal
world. Thatch isn’t very practical. Pleasantries don’t advance your
career. But somehow knowing that both of these once existed makes
me slightly nostalgic for the past—even if my idea of that past
might resemble a fairy tale world that never really existed in the
first place. I’m not asking for hootenannies or pot-luck
fondu dinner parties. It’s just that when I started
teaching that the University of Connecticut in 1987, there...
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January 13, 2012, 06:23 PM ET
Friday the 13th: Turning 21 and 55
From Act II, Scene I of Congreve's The Way of the World: "To
Pass our youth in dull indifference, to refuse the sweets of life
because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to
have been born old, because we one day must be old. Youth may wear
and waste but it shall never rust in my possession." I wrote that
line in my journal on Friday the 13th of January, 1978, the day
before I turned 21. I was superstitious. I was afraid I would never
be as happy again. I was defiant against my older self, arguing
with the woman I would become, jealously guarding my right
pleasure, defending myself against my unseen enemy: my older self.
Happy I most certainly was: I was in London, reading novels by
Hardy, Gissing, Orwell, and Webb under the tutelage of Dr. Lillian
Haddakin at UCL as part of a six-month study abroad program. It's
true that a small room in Ramsey Hall had been given...
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December 5, 2011, 08:33 AM ET
The Sweet (and Not So Sweet) Smell of Success: Life in Publishing, Part 6
"Mr. Shipman" is the alias for a dynamic VP at a publishing
house who has also taught courses in writing and publishing. His
younger self, however, might not have regarded the path to
his current success as unimpeded as it now appears in retrospect:
"I’m pretty sure my full-time starting salary in 1985 was an
alarmingly low $11,000. (So much for the go-go 1980s).
Editorial assistants have always been underpaid (and I was used to
regarding a chintzy TA stipend as a 'salary') but what the
hell? Almost 20 years of education and I was making
little more than $5 an hour??? Luckily, my wife, a very smart
and hard-working woman, was doing quite well, and within a few
years I was earning like an adult, but it’s hard to imagine that
I’d have been able to stay in the publishing business (based in
expensive cities such as Boston and New York) without such support.
As an E.A., you...
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November 28, 2011, 09:49 AM ET
What Editors Think of Writers: Real Life Part 4
"What do editors want?" Adding to our discussion of real-life
experience in the world of publishing, the fourth voice we'll hear
is from the Editor-at-Large of an internationally known and
well-respected magazine, one with a professional as well as popular
readership. A successful author in her own right as well as an
experienced editor, "Hanna Errant" (her alias, as if you couldn't
tell) maps some unnerving changes in the publishing industry over
the last twenty years: "Young hopefuls stream into our offices
wanting to write. A few are lucky to be selected as interns. They
will write short pieces, help bloggers with their posts, open the
many packages of books and perform other high-minded tasks for
months, hoping a staff position opens up. "What is notable about
these would-be writers is how crest-fallen they are when their
first writing efforts emerge from the editors' hands. A...
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October 21, 2011, 05:00 PM ET
Student Job Questions Asked and Answered
Guest Post by Laura Rossi Totten and Sam Ferrigno I
suggested that two English majors--Laura Rossi Totten, a former
undergraduate assistant who graduated from UConn in 1991, and
Samuel Ferrigno, my current assistant, who will get his B.A. in
2012--address the issue of how doing the everyday tasks expected of
students who regularly perform work-study duties or hold similar
positions might actually benefit them in their work lives after
graduation. I figured that it's time to let my grown-up students
start giving advice about the current workplace to those graduates
hoping to enter it. Laura, now principal at Laura Rossi Public
Relations, has worked with hundreds of authors, academic as well as
trade (I consider my influence a good one); she worked at Penguin,
Norton, and other major publishing houses before starting her own
firm. Sam, who has been working with me since the summer, is...
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October 17, 2011, 05:58 PM ET
Dear Student: Don't Ask for Permission to Screw Up
Dear Student: Don't get me wrong: I want to know if you got a
concussion playing lacrosse. I want to know if your father was just
in a car accident. I want to know if you're bleeding out. I respect
you and I insist on being treated with respect: As adults, we
need to be candid, straightforward, and polite. If there's
something serious affecting your ability to complete your work for
my course, we need to talk about it and we'll deal with it. But
here's what I don't want to know: that you are "thinking about
leaving class early" because you have an exam for another class
tomorrow. That's not okay. Did you think I might say that was a
good idea? Are you, and I ask this politely (see above) insane? Why
would I compromise my class for another class—and why would you?
Why would you consider it to be appropriate to tell me such a
thing? Who encouraged you to "share"? Not me. Please...
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September 26, 2011, 10:05 AM ET
Your IQ, as Determined by 'Boardwalk Empire'
Boardwalk Empire, thank
the gods of Luck, Nucky, and HBO, is back on Sunday nights. I’m as
ready to have Buscemi and Scorcese entertain me as those fans in
the plush little theatre (in a scene about 40 minutes into last
night’s episode) were ready to settle down and give themselves to
Chaplin. If you haven’t seen last night’s show yet, this might
contain spoilers. If you haven’t seen Boardwalk Empire at
all, you’re kidding only yourself. Yes, the first few installments
of the opening season were slow, but the investment is paying off.
This is no Ponzi scheme; this isn’t Lost, where you end up
wanting to take the producers and writers to court for having
engaged your attention under false pretenses. This is serious
television and it’s for grown-ups. It’s actually for smart
grown-ups. And that’s why today’s post is a highly scientific IQ
test based on what you liked...
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August 3, 2011, 03:10 PM ET
Do Friends Give Friends Advice About Admissions?
My stepsons are at that adorable age where they're both attorneys;
it's so much easier than the Baby Gap stage, or that other stage
when we were saving money for bail. You can see, therefore, that
it's been several years since we've had to worry about the
admissions process for our own immediate tribe, and now that my
brother's kids are all fully launched and sailing along in their
own orbits (one with a Master's in Library Science, one getting an
MBA, one at Concordia in Montreal), the only ones we need even
think about the children of our friends. Turns out, however, that
our friends have had lots of children over the years. And they all
seem to be applying to college at once. It's like a giant mudslide
of youth heading towards us—inexorable, overwhelming, and with the
possibility of getting more than a little messy. Because what are
you going to say to one when you know you can't...
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