Chapter 7 The Interview Solutions
Question - 11 : - Why did Lewis Carroll have a horror of the interviewer?
Answer - 11 : -
Lewis Carroll was said to have had a just horror of the interviewer. It was his horror of being lionized which made him thus repel would-be acquaintances, interviewers, and those seeking his autographs. So, he never consented to be interviewed.
Question - 12 : - How did Rudyard Kipling look at interviews?
Answer - 12 : -
Rudyard Kipling condemned interviews. His wife writes in her diary that Rudyard Kipling told the reporters that he called being interviewed as immoral and a crime like an offence against any person. It merited punishment. It was cowardly and vile.
Question - 13 : - How were Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells critical of interviews yet they indulged in interviewing others or being themselves interviewed?
Answer - 13 : -
Rudyard Kipling criticized interviews yet he interviewed Mark Twain. H.G. Wells referred to an interview in 1894 as an ordeal. Yet he was a fairly frequent interviewee. He also interviewed Joseph Stalin forty years later.
Question - 14 : - How are interviews, despite their drawbacks, useful?
Answer - 14 : -
Despite their drawbacks, interviews are a supremely serviceable medium of communication. We get ‘ our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries through interviews. Denis Brain writes that almost everything of moment reaches us through interviews.
Question - 15 : - What, according to Umberto Eco, is the one thing he does through his various pieces of writing?
Answer - 15 : -
According to Eco, he is always pursuing his ethical, philosophical interests which are non-violence and peace, through his academic work, his novels and even his books for children. He uses his spare moments constructively.
Question - 16 : - Umberto Eco tells Mukund that he has a secret. What is that?
Answer - 16 : -
Umberto Eco tells Mukund that he has a secret to reveal. He tells him that there are empty spaces in the universe, in all the atoms. If they are removed, the universe will shrink to the size of a fist. He calls these empty spaces interstices and he writes in these interstices.
Question - 17 : - How, according to one of Eco’s professors in Italy, do scholars do in their research? How is Eco’s approach different?
Answer - 17 : -
According to one of Eco’s professors in Italy, scholars made a lot of false hypotheses. They correct them and at the end they put the conclusion. But Eco told the story of his research and included his trials and errors. His professor allowed the publication of Eco’s dissertation as a book.
Question - 18 : - What did Umberto Eco learn at the age of 22 that he pursued in his novels?
Answer - 18 : -
At the age of 22, Umberto Eco understood that scholarly books should be written the way he had done, that is, they should be written by telling the story of the research. He means to say that they should have the narrative technique. That’s why he started writing novels so late—at the age of 50.
Question - 19 : - How did Eco start writing novels?
Answer - 19 : -
Eco states that he started writing novels by accident. One day, he had nothing to do, so he started writing. He felt that novels probably satisfied his taste for narration and he produced five novels, including the famous The Name of the Rose.
Question - 20 : - Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar? Discuss briefly.
Answer - 20 : -
Umberto Eco considered himself an academic scholar, a university professor who wrote novels on Sundays. If somebody said that he was a novelist, that bothered him. He participated in academic conferences and not the meetings of Pen Clubs and writers. He identified himself with academic community.