The Interview

Introduction

The chapter explores the skills needed to excel in interviews, such as preparation, effective
communication, and presentation, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of interviews, and how
they make a lasting impression.

The chapter also examines how interviews are used in journalism and how they have become a vital part
of people's lives. It includes different perspectives on interviews from people and famous personalities.
The chapter aims to prepare students to face interview situations with confidence.

The Interview Summary Part - 1

* In this chapter, the writer discusses the pros and cons of the interview.
* It is an important part of journalism.
* Several thousand celebrities have been interviewed over the years.
* Today, every literate person will have read an interview at some point in their lives.
* Some people consider 'interview' a reliable source of truth, an art whereas most of the celebrities see
it as an unwarranted intrusion into their lives.
* V.S. Naipul feels that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves.
* Lewis Carroll, the creator of 'Alice in Wonderland' never consented to be interviewed and had 'a just
horror of the interview'
* Rudyard Kipling had a condemnatory attitude towards the interviewer.
* His wife 'Caroline' writes in her diary for 14 October 1892 that their day was wrecked by two reporters
from Boston.
* Even they considered interview as a crime and assault.
* Some of them feel that it diminishes them.
* Saul Bellow, though consented to be interviewed on several occasions, once described interviews as
being like thumbprints on his windpipe.
* Despite all these drawbacks, the interview is a supremely serviceable medium of communication.
* We get the most vivid impressions of our contemporaries through interviews.

The Interview Summary Part - II

* It is an extract of an interview of Umberto Eco, taken by 'Mukund Padmanabhan' from 'The Hindu'.
* Umberto Eco was a professor at the University of Bologna in Italy.
* He had expertise in Semiotics (the study of signs), literary functions, academic texts, newspaper
articles, and many others.
* Mukund interviewed about Umberto's versatility of managing too many things.
* Umberto revealed the mystery and answered that he had discovered the way to use the empty spaces
in his life.
* He could use every single moment of his time.
* He had perfected the art of writing in a narrative style but applied it at about the age of fifty.
* Accidentally he became a novelist after moving from an essayist.
* He was more interested in academics rather than the novels, so always considered himself as an
academician and denoted only Sundays for writing novels.
* Mukund also questioned the serious theme of his novel 'The Name of the Rose' that was widely
appreciated and more than 10 million copies of this novel were sold all over the world.
* It contained a detective surface but delved into theology, metaphysics, and medieval history.
He believes that some readers like difficult experiences.
* He had no point of amazement about the category of the readers.
* He was never sure about its remarkable success.
* He assumed its huge success as a mystery that couldn't be unfolded.

Question - Answers
Question 1.
Why did Umberto Eco prefer himself to be called an academician than a novelist? (2000 Delhi)
Answer:
Despite achieving fame as a novelist, Eco preferred to associate himself with the academic community
because his non-fictional work occupied him for the first fifty years of his life. He wrote his first novel at
the age of around fifty. He identified himself more with the academic community and resorts to writing
fiction only when he was not pursuing some scholarly work.

Question 2.
Why do most celebrity writers despise being interviewed? (2003 Delhi)
Or
What are the views of writers like V.S. Naipaul and Lewis Carroll on interviews? (2005 Delhi)
Answer:
Celebrities like V.S. Naipaul, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll and H.G. Wells have expressed their strong
despise for interviews. They consider interviews immoral -‘an assault’ because they feel interviews leave
a rather disparaging effect on their personalities and are an encroachment on their privacy.
Question 3.
What was unique and distinctive about Eco’s academic writing style? (2004 Delhi)
Or
What do you learn about Umberto Eco’s distinctive style in his doctoral dissertation? (2013 Outside
Delhi)
Answer:
Umberto Eco’s academic writing style is personal, informal and playful. He fills his research stories with
all the trials and errors so that even his research work has the uniqueness . of creative writing and
reading. It is not only informative but also interesting.

Question 4.
What do you think about Umberto Eco? Does he like being interviewed? Give reasons in support of your
answer from the text ‘The Interview’. (2006 Delhi)
Answer:
Unlike various other celebrities who express a strong dislike for interviews and consider it an
encroachment upon their privacy, Umberto Eco seems to kind of enjoy giving interviews considering the
spirited manner in which he answers the questions put forth to him by the interviewer, Mukund
Padmanabhan. Eco readily and truthfully answers all the questions in the most humble and sincere
manner, delving into details, thus revealing the fact that he actually does not mind sharing his
experiences with others. At no point does he display any kind of haste to wind up the interview. In fact,
he explicitly answers all the questions that Padmanabhan asks him giving the interviewer a feeling of
warmth and being welcome.

Question 13.
What impression do you form about Umberto Eco as a scholar and writer on the basis of ‘The
Interview’? (2010 Outside Delhi)
Or
What was distinctive about Eco’s academic writing style? (2011 Delhi)
Answer:
Umberto Eco’s style is narrative, written in the manner of a story. This is in contrast to a regular academic
style which is invariably depersonalized, dry and boring. His scholarly work has a certain playful and
personal quality to it. He pursued his philosophical interests through his academic work and novels. He
also wrote books for children on non-violence and peace.
Umberto Eco, a professor at the University of Bologna, in Italy, is an authority on Semeiotics, the study of
signs. He is also a well-known novelist. His scholarly works include academic texts, essays, children’s
books and newspaper articles. He pursues his philosophical interests through his academic writings and
novels. In spite of having reached the zeniths of intellectuality, Eco is a humble and modest scholar. He
brushes aside compliments and never boasts about his achievements. He is keen to share his
experiences with others and shares the secret of accomplishing so much work by revealing the facts that
he makes use of time- gaps between different pieces of work. Eco follows an informal and playful style of
writing with a narrative aspect. Even his research work has a quality of creative writing and makes
informative as well as interesting reading.