The Interview by Christofer Silvester, Flamingo, English Core, 301

CHAPTER: 7

The Interview                               Christofer Silvester

SUMMARY The present essay is written in two parts. The first parts deals with the history of interview and the views of different eminent personalities about it, and the second part is an extract from an interview of Umberto Eco by Mukund Padmanabhan. It has been more than 130 years since the invention of interview. Today it has become a commonplace of journalism. There are different opinions regarding the methods and merits of interview. Some call it an art while others hate it as an unwarranted intrusion into people’s lives. Several famous personalities have expressed negative opinions about interview. But in today’s times, it has acquired a status of immense importance. Interviews provide us the most vivid impressions of our contemporaries. In the second part Umberto Eco tells Mukund Padmanabhan that he is a professor who writes novels on Sundays. He tells Mukund that he may give the impression of doing several things at the same time. But he is always doing the same thing. He works in interstices. He writes in a personal and playful style which is appreciated by one of his professors. The publication of The Name of the Rose at once catapulted him to success. The success of the novel is a mystery to Umberto himself. He attributes the success to its timing.

Theme

It deals with the methods and merits of interview, and brings to us views and opinions of different people regarding interview.

Setting

There is no physical background for it. It runs in the abstract form. One interview of Umberto Eco by Mukund Padmanabhan is given to understand the pragmatic aspects of interview.

Characters

In the first part there are no characters apart from the views of some celebrities. In the second part there are two characters-

Umberto Eco – He is a professor at the University of Bologna, Italy. He writes novels on Sundays. He acquired intellectual superstardom with the publication of The Name of the Rose.

Mukund Padmanabhan – He is from The Hindu and interviews Umberto Eco.

Main Points

                                                Part I

11.      The interview has become a commonplace of journalism.

22.      Opinions of interview- of its functions, methods and merits vary considerably.

33.      To some it is a source of truth in its highest form and in practice, an art.

44.    Celebrities despise the interview as an unwarranted intrusion into their lives or feel that it                    diminishes  them.

55.      V. S. Naipaul said that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves.

66.   Lewis Carroll, the creator of Alice in Wonderland, was said to have had a just horror of the       interviewer and never consented to be interviewed.

77.    According to Rudyard Kipling, the interview is immoral; it is just as much a crime as an offence     against a person, an assault; it deserves punishment; it is cowardly and vile. Yet he perpetrated such   an assault on Mark Twain.

88.      H. G. Wells referred interview as an ordeal but was a fairly frequent interviewee.

99.       Saul Bellow described interview as thumbprint on the windpipe.

110.  Despite the drawbacks of interview, it is supremely serviceable medium of communication. Almost    everything of moment comes out through one man asking questions of another.

Part II

11.      Umberto Eco is a professor, at the University of Bologna in Italy.

22.      He has already acquired a formidable reputation as a scholar for his ideas on semiotics, literary interpretations and mediaeval aesthetics.

33.      With the publication of The Name of the Rose, he achieved intellectual superstardom.

44.      Umberto Eco has some philosophical interests and he pursue them through his academic works and novels.

55.      He works in empty spaces which he calls interstices.

66.      His scholarly work has a certain playful and personal quality about it.

77.      Regular academic style is invariably depersonalized and often dry and boring.

88.      When Umberto Eco presented his first doctoral dissertation, it was appreciated by his professor and he went on to publish it.

99.      At the age of 22, he understood that a scholarly work should be written by telling the story of research.

110.  Eco’s friend Barthes was frustrated that he was an essayist and not a novelist.

111.  Eco never felt any frustration about writing a novel. Rather he started writing novel by accident.

112.  Eco has written five novels against many more scholarly works of non-fiction but he is known as a novelist than a professor.

113.  The Name of the Rose is a very serious novel. It’s a detective yarn at one level but it also delves into metaphysics, theology and medieval history. Yet it enjoyed a huge success.

114.  The publishers and the journalists were puzzled at its success because they believed that people liked trash and not the difficult reading experience.

115.  The success of the book was a mystery.

GLOSSARY

Commonplace                         -           Common, Everyday

Unwarranted                           -           Unjustifiable, Insupportable

Despise                                    -           Loathe, Hate

Lionize                                    -           Idolize, Honour

Vile                                         -           Bad, Nasty

Repel                                       -           Force back, Push back

Perpetrate                                -           Commit, Perform

Aesthetics                               -           A branch of philosophy dealing of nature of beauty

Interstices                                -           Gaps, Spaces

Playful                                     -           Joking, Frolicsome

Dissertation                             -           Thesis, Essay

Seminal                                   -           Important, Influential

Yarn                                        -           Narration, Story

Delve                                       -           Explore, Investigate

Trash                                       -           Waste, Scrap

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1.         How does Eco find the time to write so much?

Ans:    According to Eco, there is a lot of empty space in our life. He calls them interstices and     he likes to work in interstices. This is how he manages time to write so much.

2.         What was distinctive about Eco’s academic writing style?

Ans:    Eco’s academic writing style is quite different. Usually an academic work is depersonalized, often dry and boring but Eco gives it a certain playful and personal touch.   

  

3.         Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar?

Ans:    Umberto Eco considered himself an academic scholar first and a novelist next. He participated in academic conferences and not in meetings of pen clubs and writers.

4.         What is the reason of the huge success of the novel The Name of the Rose?

Ans:    According to him the success of the novel is a mystery. He thinks that if it had been published ten years earlier or ten years later, it wouldn’t have been the same.

5.         What is the belief in some primitive cultures about being photographed?

Ans:    In some primitive cultures it is believed that if one takes a photographic portrait of                               somebody than one is stealing that person’s soul.

6.         Why do most celebrity writers despise being interviewed?

Ans:    Most celebrity writers see themselves as victims of interview. They consider it as an unwarranted intrusion into their lives or feel that it somehow diminishes them. This is the reason why they despise being interviewed.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTION

1.         Give a pen-portrait of Umberto Eco.

Ans:    Umberto Eco is a professor at the University of Bologna in Italy and has already acquired a formidable reputation as a scholar for his ideas on semiotics, literary interpretation and medieval aesthetics before he turned to writing fiction. His written output is staggeringly         large and includes literary fiction, academic texts, essays, children’s books, newspaper articles etc. In 1980 he achieved  superstardom with the publication of The Name of the Rose. According to him, he works in interstices. His scholarly work has a certain playful and personal quality about it. He calls himself a professor who writes novels on Sundays.