Chapter 7 The Interview Solutions
Question - 31 : - How do celebrity writers despise being interviewed as given in тАШThe InterviewтАЩ?
Answer - 31 : -
Since its invention a little over 130 years ago, the interview has become commonplace journalism. Over the years, opinions about its functions, methods and merits vary considerably. Some say it is a source of truth and in practice, an art. Others despise it being an unwarranted intrusion into their lives. They feel it diminishes them. They equate it to taking a photographic portrait of somebody which in some primitive cultures mean тАШstealing the personтАЩs soul.тАЩ Some people feel wounded by interviews and lose part of themselves. They call it immoral, a crime and an assault. To some it is cowardly and vile or an ordeal.
Question - 32 : - How does Eco explain that he is convinced he is always doing the same thing?
Answer - 32 : -
Umberto Eco explains to Mukund Padmanabhan in an interview that all the people have a lot of empty spaces. These he call тАШintersticesтАЩ. He explains them through an example. He says that one is to come to him and is in an elevator and he is waiting for him. While waiting for the guestтАЩs elevator to appear before him. he has already written an article. It means he writes in snatches of time. However, his creative ideas flow in his mind every time even when he is hosting his guest. Though he relaxes on Sundays, yet is very much busy to write novels. On other days he is busy with his academic work.
Question - 33 : - How does Mukund Padmanabhan comment on EcoтАЩs academic writing style? What does Eco say about it?
Answer - 33 : -
Mukund Padmanabhan states that EcoтАЩs non-fictional writing, that is, his scholarly work has a certain playful and personal quality about it. It is a marked departure from a regular style. That regular style is invariably depersonalised and often dry and boring. To a question if he consciously adopted
an informal style, he cited the comments of one of the professors who examined and evaluated his first doctoral dissertation. The professor said that scholars learned a lot of a certain subject, then they made a lot of false hypotheses, then they corrected and put conclusions at the end. But Eco told the story of his research, including his trials and errors. At the age of 22, Eco understood that scholarly books should be written by telling the story of the research. His essays, therefore, have a narrative aspect. That is why, he wrote novels to satisfy his taste for narrative.
Question - 34 : - How does Mukund Padmanabhan impress you as an interviewer? Do you consider his interview with Umberto Eco a success?
Answer - 34 : -
Mukund PadmanabhanтАЩs interview with Umberto Eco tells about his capabilities as a successful interviewer. He does not encroach upon his privacy or embarrass him with personal questions. He does not come in-between the celebrity and the readers. His questions are well worded. His questions тАв draw out of him what his fans would like to know. The questions asked by Mukund cover all the aspects of his works and personality. Eco gives elaborated answers to all his questions. With every question, the interviewer withdraws to the background leaving the interviewee in the limelight. The whole interview does not appear to be an ordeal for the interviewee. In short it is crisp at the same time informal.
Question - 35 : - What are the opinions of some of the celebrities on interviews?
Answer - 35 : -
Celebrities have often seen themselves as victims of interviews. In V.S. NaipaulтАЩs opinion, interviews have left people wounded and part of them stolen. Lewis Carroll was in horror of the interviewer and he never consented to be interviewed. He often silenced all those who sought to interview him or ask for his autographs. Rudyard Kipling too held a very critical attitude towards interviews and disapproved of them after he was left almost wrecked by two reporters from Boston. According to his wife, since then he found interviews were vile, immoral and a crime. To H.G. Wells, being interviewed was an ordeal, while to Saul Bellow, interviews were like thumbprints on his windpipe, an extortion of personal details by an overbearing interviewer. They all seemed to be terrified of interviews.
Question - 36 : - How does the interview with Umberto Eco prove that the interview is the most commendable tool to elicit information about the interviewee?
Answer - 36 : -
Mukund Padmanabhan from тАШThe HinduтАЩ interviews Umberto Eco and proves that interview is the most commendable tool to elicit information about the interviewee.
Through his interview he reveals that Eco is a prolific writer and yet a man who is most modest about his achievements. He very humbly spells the secret of his varied and staggeringly voluminous works produced by him. When Mukund asks him about David LodgeтАЩs remark that how one man can do all the things that Eco doesтАЩ, Eco very modestly says it is a fallacious impression, in fact he has always been doing the same thing by pursuing the same philosophical ideas. He views himself as an academic, rather than a novelist. He admits that he has started writing novels by accident and writes novels on Sundays.