by Christopher Silvester
A brief analysis on opinions about the interview.
“Almost everything of moment reaches us through one man asking questions of another.”
Part - I
Answer the following questions:
1) What are some of the positive views on interviews?
Some people claim that interviews are the source of truth in its highest form. Some also consider it an art too. It is believed to be a supremely serviceable medium of communication. The most vivid impressions we have formed of famous people in today's time are through interviews. Almost anything important, authentic or relevant in today's world reaches common people by one man asking questions to another.
2) Why do most celebrities despise being interviewed?
Many celebrities regard themselves as victims of the process of interview. They feel that interviews are intrusions of their privacy, and that it somehow diminishes them. Some of them have expressed their reluctance in their own unique ways.
V. S. Naipul feels that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves when interviewed.
Lewis Carroll did not like being treated as a celebrity, and therefore was horrified at the thought of being interviewed. He never consented to be interviewed.
Rudyard Kipling considered the process to be immoral, and a crime. He regarded it to be an assault, an offence against an individual. He thought it to be cowardly and evil, and that no man of honor would ask it, much less give it.
H. G. Wells believed interviews to be an 'ordeal'.
Saul Bellow described interviews as being like thumbprints on his windpipe, an unpleasant experience, to say the least, or an intrusion on one's privacy.
3) What is the belief in some primitive cultures about being photographed?
In some primitive cultures it is believed that if someone takes a photographic portrait of someone, then one is stealing that person's soul.
4) What do you understand by the expression 'thumbprints on his windpipe'?
The expression 'thumbprints on his windpipe' by Saul Bellow gives a sense of being suffocated. Pressure on windpipe chokes the breathing process. The one being interviewed feels this way because of the tension or stress of being interviewed.
5) Who, in today's world, is our chief source of information about personalities?
The interviewer who asks relevant and well-framed questions to the interviewee holds immense power and influence as they are the ones who bring out information from the personalities being interviewed.
Part - II
1) Do you think Umberto Eco likes being interviewed? Give reasons for your opinion.
Yes, I think he likes being interviewed. This is evident from the detailed and insightful answers that he gives to the questions by the interviewer. His tone is even confidential, sharing intimate details about him and his book that others would not have come to know if it was not for the interview. He is also quite frank when he says that he is first an academician who writes novels on Sundays. He is very honest too in his answers as at last he says that the book The Name of the Rose's success was a mystery to him.
2) How does Eco find the time to write so much?
Umberto Eco applies the theory of empty spaces in the universe to his time and days. He says that we have a lot of empty spaces in our lives called interstices. He utilizes those blank spots of time to think and write. For example, during the time he is waiting for someone to come up through an elevator, he has written an article.
3) What was distinctive about Eco's academic writing style?
The typical non-fiction academic writing style is depersonalized, and therefore often dry and boring. However, Umberto Eco employed a different approach, an informal approach. He believed that if the researcher presented his work in form of a story it would be more interesting. His scholarly work has a certain playful and personal quality about it.
4) Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar?
Umberto Eco considered himself to be an academic scholar first, a university professor who wrote novels on Sundays. He participated more in academic conferences than meetings of pen clubs and writers. He identified himself more with the academic community.
5) What is the reason for the huge success of the novel, The Name of the Rose?
The genre of the book is historical fiction. However, there are also concepts of metaphysics and theology dealt with in the novel. Umberto Eco admits that the success of the book is a mystery to him. Perhaps it was the right time when it was published. If it had been published ten years earlier or later, it would not have performed the same. There was another factor to be considered as hinted at by Eco himself. Maybe it was the fact that there are many intellectual readers who do not want easy experiences, but challenging ones. The book seems to be providing exactly that, and probably that quality pushed the sales of the book.
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