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Chapter - 7. The Interview - Watermark

Umberto Eco discusses his views on interviews and his prolific career as both an academic and novelist. He explains that he is always exploring the same philosophical ideas but across different genres. He also utilizes "interstices," or small gaps of time, to be highly productive. Eco reveals he adopted a narrative style after his dissertation was published as a book, which led him to write novels later in his career. His novel "The Name of the Rose" was a surprising success despite its serious and difficult subject matter, which puzzled journalists but not Eco himself.

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Faizan Ansari
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45 views

Chapter - 7. The Interview - Watermark

Umberto Eco discusses his views on interviews and his prolific career as both an academic and novelist. He explains that he is always exploring the same philosophical ideas but across different genres. He also utilizes "interstices," or small gaps of time, to be highly productive. Eco reveals he adopted a narrative style after his dissertation was published as a book, which led him to write novels later in his career. His novel "The Name of the Rose" was a surprising success despite its serious and difficult subject matter, which puzzled journalists but not Eco himself.

Uploaded by

Faizan Ansari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ENGLISH THE INTERVIEW

THE INTERVIEW
~Summary~

Part 1

Background of the Interview


Having a history of over 130 years, different people have varied opinions about the uses, modes
and advantages of interviews. Till now, thousands of celebrities have been interviewed. Every
educated person is familiar with it. Some people claim that it is a source of truth while others feel
that in practice it is an art.

Opinions about Interviews


Many celebrities despise the interview because it is an encroachment on their privacy. It
depreciates their personality in a similar manner as depicted in some primitive cultures, where
people believed that, if someone takes a photographic portrait of somebody, then one is stealing
that person's soul.
VS Naipaul is of the opinion that interviews injure people as they lose a part of themselves. Lewis
Carrol, the creator of 'Alice in Wonderland' was said to have a just 'horror of the interviewer'
because he thought he would be treated as a celebrity. His refusals for interviews helped him
keep his fans, acquaintances and interviewers at bay. This gave him great satisfaction and
amusement. Later he would narrate such experiences with aplomb.

Rudyard Kipling, HG Wells and Saul Bellow's Views on Interviews


Rudyard Kipling vehemently condemned interviews. His wife, Caroline, writes in her diary that
her husband refused giving interviews because he considered them immoral, a crime and an
assault which is worthy of punishment. According to him, interviews were something vile and
cowardly. He neither held the interviewee in esteem nor the interviewer. Although Kipling
criticised the interview, he had himself interviewed Mark Twain only a few years before this
tirade against interviews.
ENGLISH THE INTERVIEW

HG Wells, an eminent science fiction writer, frequently gave interviews but, in an interview in
1894, referred to 'the interviewing ordeal'. Forty years after this comment, he interviewed Joseph
Stalin, a great Russian revolutionary.
Saul Bellow felt that interviewers created so much tension and pressure that he felt suffocated.
He describes interviews as 'thumbprints on his windpipe'.

Summing Up the Genre of Interviews


Despite its disadvantages, the interview is an excellent medium of communication. Denis Brian
gives an elevated position to the interviewer because of his power and influence over the
interviewee. He terms the interview as an expressive medium.
Part II

The second part of the chapter is an extract from an interview of Umberto Eco, who is being
interviewed by Mukund Padmanabhan from 'The Hindu'.
Umberto Eco is a renowned scholar who is known for his ideas on semiotics (the study of signs),
literary interpretation and medieval aesthetics. He is also an author who has an array of works
ranging from literary fiction, academic texts, essays, children's books and newspaper articles. He
rose to prominence with his work 'The Name of the Rose' which sold a staggering 10 million
copies.

Eco's Views on his Philosophical Interests and 'Interstices'


The interviewer, Mukund Padmanabhan, quotes David Lodge (an English novelist) who had
expressed astonishment at Umberto Eco's varied and sizeable works. He expresses his surprise
by saying that how could one man do all the things that Umberto Eco did. Umberto Eco says that
this is a delusive impression about him because he has always been doing the same thing by
writing the same philosophical and ethical ideas in different genres.
Eco discloses his secret of producing such voluminous works. He utilises the 'empty spaces' i.e.,
the shortest gaps between two different works. That's the reason why he has produced so many
works. He calls the 'empty spaces' "interstices".

Eco's Intimate and Playful Style


The interviewer, questions him about his personalised style of writing which is quite different
from the dull and drab style adopted for writing academic works. He asks him if this comes
naturally to him or whether he has to make a conscious effort to develop this style.
ENGLISH THE INTERVIEW

At this, Umberto Eco replies that he learnt this style of writing when he was 22 years of age. At
that time he had presented his first Doctoral dissertation in Italy. His Professor was impressed
because he had included his trials and errors in it. He had told the story of his research. His
Professor published his dissertation as a book which was his way of complimenting his student.
Eco understood that he had to adopt the narrative style in his works also. This led him to become
a novelist at the ripe age of 50.
At this stage, Umberto Eco remembers his friend, Roland Barthes. Who was, an essayist and died
frustrated because he could not fulfil his wish of being a creative writer. Umberto says that he
never felt this frustration, as even his essays had a narrative aspect to them. He says that he
started writing novels by accident. They catered to his taste for narration.

The Phenomenal Success of ‘The Name of the Rose’


One day when Umberto Eco had nothing to do, he tried his hand at writing a novel. "The Name
of the Rose' made him famous as a novelist although he is an academician with over 40 works in
non-fiction.
Most people know Umberto Eco as a novelist but this doesn't please him. He belongs to the
academic community and participates in academic conferences. He writes novels only on
Sundays. He accepts the fact that by writing fiction he can reach more people. He says, "I cannot
expect to have one million readers with stuff on semiotics".
Mukund, the interviewer, asks him if he is surprised by the staggering success of the novel, 'The
Name of the Rose'. As the 'The Name of the Rose' is a serious novel that spins a detective yarn at
one level and also ventures into metaphysics, theology and medieval history, it is considered, a
difficult and serious read.
Umberto Eco says that he is not puzzled by its staggering sales figures. The only people who look
at this in disbelief are journalists and publishers. They believe that people like trash and don't like
difficult reading experiences". He applies his own mind to this. He says that after working the
whole day he refreshes himself by watching light entertainment programmes such as 'Miami
Vice' or 'Emergency Room' after dinner. Similarly, everybody likes light reading only to a certain
extent. As such, serious reading does have the capability to draw people.
The medieval period to which this book belongs could have played a major role in its success. For
Umberto Eco, the success of the book is a mystery. If he had written it ten years earlier or ten
years later it might have not been such a remarkable success story.
ENGLISH THE INTERVIEW

Conclusion of The Interview


To sum up, The Interview summary, we learn how many people differ when it comes to
interviews, nonetheless, they are very interesting and informative as seen from Umberto’s
interview.

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