THE INTERVIEW

By: Christopher Sylvester

Questions & Answers
Q1. How does the author discuss the importance of ‘interview’ as a
genre of modern journalism? Which are the two contradictory
opinions about it?
According to the author interview has become a commonplace of
journalism. Opinions on the functions, methods and merits of Interview
vary considerably. Some claim it to be the highest form, a source of truth
and in its practice an art. Some despise the interview as an unwarranted
intrusion into lives, which diminishes their personality.
Despite the drawbacks interview is a supremely serviceable medium of
communication. Interviews are the most vivid impression of our
contemporaries and the interviewer holds a position of unprecedented
power and influence.

Q 2. How does interview serve a noble purpose in the modern world?

Even though most celebrities condemn interviews, it serves a noble
purpose to the rest of the world. The great thoughts and attitudes of the
celebrities reach the common people through the medium of interview and
make people’s life more meaningful and enlightened.

Q 3. How do some of the prominent literary personalities visualize

interviews? What is the irony about their opinions?
The author has discussed some of the most prominent literary
personalities’ views about interviews in the chapter and they commonly
testify their intense dislike for interviews. Some despise the interview as an
unwarranted intrusion into lives, which victimizes them and diminishes
their personality.
V.S. Naipaul feels that ‘some people are wounded by interviews and lose a
part of themselves’. Lewis Carroll never consented to be interviewed for
he had a ‘fear of being lionized’. He was believed to be in ‘a just horror of
the interviewer’. He would often narrate the stories of his success in
silencing all such aspiring interviewers and autograph seekers. Rudyard
Kipling called it “immoral, a crime, an assault against my person that
merits punishment. No respectable man would ask it, much less would give
it”. H.G. Wells referred interviewing to be an ‘ordeal’. Saul Bellow
describes it ‘like thumbprints on his windpipe’.
The irony about their opinions is that they all share invariably highly
negative opinions about interviews, yet they all not only gave frequent
interviews but also interviewed other famous personalities later. Kipling
interviewed Mark Twain and H.G. Wells interviewed Joseph Stalin. It is
surprising to notice that as an interviewer, each one is comfortable,
whereas, as an interviewee, they feel it much disturbing and diminishing.
Yet in the words of the writer, ‘Interview is a serviceable medium of
communication’.

Q4. Who is Mukund Padmanabhan? What does his interview of

Umberto Eco reveal about the writer?
Mukund Padmanabhan was a journalist from The Hindu who interviewed
Umberto Eco, who attained intellectual superstardom with his publication
“The Name of the Rose”. Eco is a professor with a formidable reputation as
a scholar for his ideas on Semiotics, literary interpretation and medieval
aesthetics before he turned into writing literary fiction. In the interview
Eco shares his idea of empty spaces in our lives just as they exist in an
atom, which he calls Interstices. He says that he makes use of these empty
spaces to work. As Eco’s essays are scholarly and narrative, he likes to be
identified more as a university professor who writes novels. Eco’s ‘The
Name of the Rose”, a serious novel, which delves into metaphysics, theology
and medieval history, enjoyed a mass audience, as it gave them a difficult
reading experience, a welcome change from the trash read usually. It dealt
with medieval past. He feels that the novel wouldn’t have been so well
received had it been written ten years earlier or later. In fact its success is a
mystery to him.
Q5. Explain Eco’s theory of interstices.
There is a lot of empty space between the nucleus and electrons in each
atom and if that empty space is removed, the universe will be as small as a
human fist. Even though this is a bit of exaggeration, Eco wants to say that
similar empty spaces are in our lives too and if we remove them we can
find out a lot of time to do more.
Q6. What is the irony in Eco’s statement, ‘I am a professor who writes
novels on Sundays?’
A novelist can never say that he keeps a day for writing novels. Writers are
always writers. Yet Umberto Eco is an exception. Though he is a world
famous novelist, he primarily considers himself as a professor and an
academic writer and hardly gets time for writing novels except on Sundays.
Q7. What is Semiotics? How is Eco known in connection with
Semiotics?
Semiotics is the study of signs. It explores how words and other signs make
meaning. In semiotics, a sign is anything that stands in for something other
than itself. This lesson focuses primarily on linguistic signs.
Eco is a professor of semiotics at the Bologna University, Italy, and writes
academic books on this subject.
Q8. Why do celebrities despise interviews?
While common people are eager to read the interviews of the celebrities,
the very celebrities have an aversion to being interviewed. Most of them
find an interview an intrusion into their personal lives while some fear it,
some hate it, some consider it immoral and assaulting.

Q9. What is V.S. Naipaul’s attitude towards interview?

VS Naipaul feels that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a
part of themselves, as they are forced to reveal their secrets. It is similar as
some primitive cultures believed that getting oneself photographed would
rob them of their souls.
Q10. What were Lewis Carroll’s fears regarding interviews?
Lewis Carroll says interviews bring unparalleled heights to the person in
the society and that they will be regarded greater than what they are and
consequently; they will lose their friends and dear ones.
Q11. What make Rudyard Kipling condemn being interviewed?
Rudyard Kipling considered interviews to be immoral. He said it is a crime,
just as much of a crime as an offence against the person interviewed, as an
assault, and just as much merits punishment. He adds that it is cowardly
and vile and therefore no respectable man would ask it, much less give it.
Q12. What does Saul Bellow mean by saying that ‘interviews were
thumbprints on his windpipe?’
Saul Bellow used to allow to be interviewed yet he used to comment that he
used to have great trouble to be interviewed because it was an experience
of his throat being thumbed by his interviewers.
Q13. What enabled Eco to acquire the equivalent of intellectual
superstardom?
Umberto Eco is famous for his books on semiotics, academic writing and
popular for his novel. He has written over forty academic books, apart from
a few books on fiction. Besides, he deals with literary interpretation,
medieval aesthetics, literary fiction, academic texts, essays, children’s
books, newspaper articles, etc. This quality of being at the same time able
to handle such a wide range of subjects as a writer enabled him to acquire
the equivalent of intellectual superstardom.

Q14. How does Umberto Eco manage time to write a wide range of
books in his limited time?
Umberto Eco says, 'I am a university professor who writes novels on
Sundays'. He believes that there is a lot of empty space or interstices in
everyone’s life. If we efficiently make use of this wasted time, however
short they are, we can find a lot of time in our lives. Eco finds his time to
write during such times.

Q15. What is the marked departure from a regular academic style that
is found in Eco’s academic books?
Eco's writing style is playful and personal. Even his essays have a narrative
aspect which makes them interesting.

Most of the academic books are uninteresting and dry. But Eco’s books on
any serious academic subjects are different because his books have ‘a story
telling style’ where the student can find characters, incidents and stories
that teach the subject of study.

Q16. How does Eco balance his botheration of being overshadowed by

the fame of a novelist?
Though Umberto Eco feels that he could not make Semiotics famous or be
famous as an academic writer, he balances that failure against the huge
success that he achieved by his novel which in fact is all about semiotics
and the rest of his favourite subjects.

Q17. What light does Eco throw on his famous novel ‘The Name of the
Rose’?
Ans. The Name of the Rose is a famous novel written by Umberto Eco. It is a
detective novel but it deals with metaphysics, theology and medieval
history. It is a deep, serious and difficult novel still between 10 million to
15 million copies of this novel were sold. Its success was a mystery for the
writer. It broke the illusion that people like reading trash
.
Q18. Explain what Eco says about his activity of novel writing.
Ans. Umberto says that he started writing novels by accident. One day he
had nothing to do so he started writing novels. It satisfied his taste for
narration. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a huge success.
Though it deals with difficult and serious subjects of metaphysics, theology
and medieval history, its 10-15 million copies were sold. Its success was a
mystery for the writer. It broke the illusion that people liked reading
trash.\
Q19. What are some of the positive views on interviews?
Ans Over last 130 years, the interview has become a widely popular and
an effective mode of communication in journalism. It is a source of truth. In
practice, it is an art. It leaves in our mind the most vivid impression of our
contemporaries. Everything reaches us through the person being
interviewed. However, the interviewer has an advantage over ahe
interviewee, as the former can give any desired direction to the interview
through his questions. The author calls it “An effective and serviceable
medium of journalism”.

Q20. How does Eco find the time to write so much? .What was unique
and distinctive about Eco's academic style?
During the interview, Mukund Padmanabhan reiterates David Lodge’s
astonishment on Umberto Eco’s large amount of works and how he
manages to write them all. Eco replies that just like the universe has empty
spaces, our lives too, have a lot of empty spaces or ‘interstices’, as he calls
them. Whenever he has a few moments to spare in between two different
tasks, instead of wasting them, he uses these time-intervals to write. He
even gives an example of his working technique. He says that while waiting
for Mukund to come up the elevator he kept himself busy writing an article.

Eco's writing style is playful and personal. Even his essays have a narrative
aspect which made them interesting.

Q21. What is the reason for the huge success of the novel, 'The Name
of the Rose'?
Ans. ‘The Name of the Rose’ is a famous novel written by Umberto Eco. It
was a detective novel but it deals with metaphysics, theology and medieval
history. Umberto Eco has rightly pointed out that the huge success behind
The Name of the Rose is a mystery. It is not possible to know the exact
reason behind a book’s success or failure; one can only make wild guesses.
The reason for its success was perhaps its narrative aspect which is in the
manner of a Chinese wise old man and theme of medieval history. But,
many novels written about the medieval past have failed to get as much
success. According to him the success could also be attributed to the time
when the novel was published, perhaps it wouldn’t have been so successful
ten years earlier or later. However, he finally came to the conclusion that
the novel’s success is a mystery to him.

Q22. What did the publisher think of 'The Name of the Rose'?
Ans. The publisher was an American lady. She said that she loved the novel
but she did not hope to sell more than 3000 copies of this novel.

Q23. What do you understand by the expression “thumbprints on his

windpipe”?
“Thumbprints on his windpipe” means to choke or suffocate somebody by
applying pressure on his throat. Saul Bellow uses this expression to refer to
the pressure and discomfort felt by a celebrity while giving an interview.

Q24. Who, in today’s world, is our chief source of information about

personalities?

Interviews help us know our contemporaries and their opinions. They

serve as a means of communication between the celebrities and the
audience. In this case, the interviewer is endowed with a very special
power and he becomes our chief source of information about
personalities.

Q25. What important lesson did Eco learn while writing his doctoral
dissertation? How did it influence him in his writing academic books
and later becoming a novelist?
Eco’s writing style is strikingly different from that of the standard
academic mode. The academicians first make a thorough research, then
move on to prove their hypotheses, and finally, give their conclusion on
that subject. The final outcome, therefore, comes out as tedious. Eco, on
the other hand, tells the story of his research, including his “trials and
errors”. While the scholars usually use a very depersonalised and dull
manner, Eco’s style is personalised and playful, and in the form of a
narrative.
His novels too have a personal, playful and interesting narrative quality, in
spite of their serious themes like; metaphysics, theology and medieval
history.

Q26. What made Eco identify himself with the academic community
even though he was better known as a novelist?

Umberto Eco considered himself an academic scholar first and then a

novelist. He wrote more scholarly articles as compared to novels; and, he
attended academic conferences and not meetings of Pen Clubs and writers.
According to him, he was a university professor who wrote novels on
Sundays. “I started writing novels by accident”, he said.