INDIAN SCHOOL AL WADI AL KABIR

Class: XII Department: ENGLISH 2024 – 2025

Question Bank Topic: THE INTERVIEW Note:

- Christopher Silvester

Summary

This chapter is an excerpt taken from ‘The Penguin Book of Interviews’. It is written by
Christopher Silvester. In this chapter, the author talks about the technique of ‘interview’ as a
new way of interrogating. He talks about it with reference to the field of Journalism. Moreover,
he also discusses the importance of this new technique. He goes on to state how the interview
has become a vital arena in everyone’s lives, regardless of the class, literacy or anything. We
learn about the opinions of many celebrities concerning an interview. Thus, it teaches us about
the functions, methods and merits of an interview. Moreover, the author also incorporates an
excerpt from an interview with the notorious writer, Umberto Eco. This part allows us to get a
glimpse at his literary method.

The chapter starts with the author introducing us to the method of an interview. We learn that it
is pretty common in journalism and its origin dates back to 130 years before. He expresses that
surprisingly, various people carry different opinions about the concept of the interview and its
uses. Some people think of it very highly while others cannot bear giving an interview. The
chapter tells us that an interview can make a lasting impression. Moreover, as per an old saying,
when we make perceptions about a particular person, the original identity of their soul is taken
away. We learn how the most popular celebrities have criticized interviews.

Similarly, Rudyard Kipling’s wife writes in her diary about how two reporters in Boston ruined
her. He thinks of interviewing as an assault. Moreover, he even believes that this crime should
have a punishment. Further, Kipling is of the thinking that no respectable person asks for or
gives an interview. Moreover, this chapter also contains an excerpt from an interview between
Mukund, belonging to The Hindu Newspaper and Umberto Eco. Eco is a professor at the
University of Bologna in Italy. He has a daunting status as a scholar for his philosophies on
semiotics (the study of signs), literary interpretation, and medieval aesthetics before taking up
writing fiction.

In the interview, we see it centres on his successful novel, The Name of the Rose. His novel sold
more than 10 million copies. Mukund begins by asking him how he manages to do such
different things. Umberto replies saying he is doing the same thing. Further, he goes on to justify
his books that revolve around peace and non-violence. We learn that Umberto classifies himself
as an academic scholar. He attends various academic conferences throughout the week and

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writes novels on Sundays. Moreover, he expresses that others considering him as a novelist and
not scholar does not affect him at all. He agrees it is rather tough to influence millions of people
with academic work.

Moreover, we also learn how he believes that our lives have empty spaces like the ones in
atoms. He refers to them as interstices and admits that he does most of his productive work in
the course of that time. Speaking about his novel, he remarks that it is not an easy read. It has got
a detective feature to it alongside metaphysics, theology and medieval history. Similarly, he
thinks that if he wrote the novel ten years earlier or later, it would not have achieved the same
success. Thus, the reason for the success of the novel remains a mystery.

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.

MCQs / COMPETENCY BASED QUESTIONS

Q1- How does Umberto Eco find so much time to write so much?
A) using early morning time
B) using his office time
C) using his family time
D) using empty spaces (free times) like waiting for someone, break time

Q2- What was distinctive (special) about Eco's academic writing style?
A) His realistic narrative style with trial and errors
B) his interrogative style
C) his monotonous unrealistic style
D) fictitious imaginative style

Q3- What is the reason for huge success of the novel The Name of The Rose?
A) mystic
B) metaphysics and medieval history period used
C) detective style and theology
D) All these

Q4- The positive traits of interviews includes…..

A) brings out the truth and gives vivid impression of contemporaries
B) helps finding hidden talents

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C) useful medium of communication
D) All these

Q5- Most celebrity writers despise being interviewed because…

A) they don't like journalists
B) unwarranted intrusion in their life
C) their privacy is hurt
D) none

2. “Why do I refuse to be interviewed? Because it is immoral! It is a crime, just as much of a

crime as an offence against my person, as an assault, and just as much merits punishment. It
is cowardly and vile. No respectable man would ask it, much less give it. Yet Kipling had
himself perpetrated such an ‘assault’ on Mark Twain only a few years before.”

a). Kipling refused to be interviewed because….

b). Statement 1 : Kipling doesn’t like being interviewed.

Statement 2 : He also didn’t interview anyone.

a. Both statements are true

b. Both statements are false

c. Statement 1 is wrong and 2 is right

d. Statement 1 is right and 2 is wrong

c). A possible synonym of vile is …….

d). the phrase, ‘perpetrated such as assault’ means …..

3. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

Some might make quite extravagant claims for it as being, in its highest form, a source of
truth, and, in its practice, an art. Others, usually celebrities who see themselves as its victims,
might despise the interview as an unwarranted intrusion into their lives, or feel that it
somehow diminishes them, just as in some primitive cultures it is believed that if one takes a
photographic portrait of somebody then one is stealing that person’s soul.

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1. What is the most likely reason some people consider the practice of interviews to be
an art? This could be because it requires
A fluency of words.
B sensitive and careful handling.
C creativity and imagination.
D probing and focusing on details.
Ans. C creativity and imagination.

2. Rewrite the sentence by replacing the underlined phrase with its inference.

‘Celebrities feel that an interview diminishes them’.

Ans. Celebrities feel that interviews make them look like common people.

3. On the basis of the extract, choose the correct option with reference to the two
statements given below.
(1) Celebrities don’t consent to be interviewed.
(2) Interviews intrude on the privacy of celebrities.

A (1) Can be inferred from the extract but (2) cannot.

B (1) cannot be inferred from the extract but (2) can.
C (1) is true but (2) is false.
D (2) is the reason for (1).

Ans. D (2) is the reason for (1).

4. Rationalise, to support the given opinion: To say that an interview, in its highest
form, is a source of truth, is an extravagant claim.
Ans. It is an extravagant claim as an interview cannot be a source of truth due to the
following- Interview may be scripted OR People may make false statements OR Certain
questions may be left unanswered.

5. Replace the underlined word with its antonym from the extract.

‘Some celebrities hate the idea of having to give an interview because it makes them feel
like supporters.’
Ans. victims

6. The author’s views on the interview, in the extract, can best be described as
statements based on __________.
A facts
B hypothesis
C beliefs
D superstitions
Ans. A facts

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Q1. What are some of the positive views on interviews?

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Ans: The positive views on interviews are that it is a medium of communication and a source
of truth and information. Some even look at it as an art. These days we know about the
celebrities and others through their interviews.

Q2. Why do most celebrity writers despise being interviewed?

Ans: Most celebrity writers despise being interviewed because they look at interviews as an
unwarranted intrusion into their lives. They feel that it diminishes them. They feel that they
are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves. They consider interviews immoral
and a crime, and an unwanted and unwelcome interruption in their personal life.

Q3. What is the belief in some primitive cultures about being photographed?

Ans: Some primitive cultures consider taking a photographic portrait is like stealing the
person’s soul and diminishing him.

Q4. What do you understand by the expression ‘thumbprints on his windpipe’?

Ans: Saul Bellow once described interviews as being like ‘thumbprints on his windpipe’. It
means he treated interviews as a painful experience, as something that caught him by his
windpipe, squeezed him and left indelible thumbprints on that. It also means that when the
interviewer forces personal details from his interviewee, it becomes undesirable and cruel.

Q5. Who, in today’s world, is our chief source of information about personalities?

Ans: The interviewer is the chief source of information in today’s world. Our most vivid
impressions of our contemporaries are based on communication that comes from them. Thus,
interviewers hold a position of power and influence.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

Q1. Do you think Umberto Eco likes being interviewed? Give reasons for your opinion.

Ans: Umberto Eco does not think highly of interviewers who he thinks are a puzzled bunch
of people. He has reasons for thinking so as they have often interpreted him as a novelist and
clubbed him with Pen Clubs and writers, while he considers himself an academic scholar who
attends academic conferences and writes novels on Sundays.

Q2. How does Eco find the time to write so much?

Ans: Eco humorously states that there are a lot of empty spaces in his life. He calls them
‘interstices’. There are moments when one is waiting for the other. In that empty space, Eco

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laughingly states that he writes an article. Then he states that he is a professor who writes
novels on Sundays.

Q3. What was distinctive about Eco’s academic writing style?

Ans: Umberto’s writings have an ethical and philosophical element underlying them. His
non-fictional writing work has a certain playful and personal quality about it. Even his
writings for children deal with non-violence and peace. This style of writing makes reading
his novels and essays interesting and being like the reading of most academic writings. His
works are marked by an informal and narrative aspect.

Q4. Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar?

Ans: Umberto identified himself with the academic community, a professor who attended
academic conferences rather than meetings of Pen Clubs. In fact, he was quite unhappy that
the people referred to him as a novelist.

Q5. What is the reason for the huge success of the novel, The Name of the Rose?

Ans: The success of The Name of the Rose, though a mystery to the author himself, could
possibly be because it offered a difficult reading experience to the kind of readers who do not
want easy reading experiences and those who look at novels as a machine for generating
interpretations. For the same reason, the sale of his novel was underestimated by his
American publishers, while the readers actually enjoyed the difficult reading experience that
was offered by Umberto Eco by raising questions about truth and the order of the world.

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS- EXTRA

Q1. Why did Lewis Carroll have a horror of the interviewer?

Ans: Lewis Carroll was said to have had a just horror of the interviewer. It was his horror of
being lionized which made him thus repel would-be acquaintances, interviewers, and those
seeking his autographs. So, he never consented to be interviewed.

Q2. How did Rudyard Kipling look at interviews?

Ans: Rudyard Kipling condemned interviews. His wife writes in her diary that Rudyard
Kipling told the reporters that he called being interviewed as immoral and a crime like an
offence against any person. It merited punishment. It was cowardly and vile.

Q3. How were Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells critical of interviews yet they indulged in
interviewing others or being themselves interviewed?

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Ans: Rudyard Kipling criticized interviews yet he interviewed Mark Twain. H.G. Wells
referred to an interview in 1894 as an ordeal. Yet he was a fairly frequent interviewee. He
also interviewed Joseph Stalin forty years later.

Q4. How are interviews, despite their drawbacks, useful?

Ans: Despite their drawbacks, interviews are a supremely serviceable medium of

communication. We get ‘our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries through
interviews. Denis Brain writes that almost everything of moment reaches us through
interviews.

Q5. What, according to Umberto Eco, is the one thing he does through his various pieces of
writing?

Ans: According to Eco, he is always pursuing his ethical, philosophical interests which are
non-violence and peace, through his academic work, his novels and even his books for
children. He uses his spare moments constructively.

Q6. Umberto Eco tells Mukund that he has a secret. What is that?

Ans: Umberto Eco tells Mukund that he has a secret to reveal. He tells him that there are
empty spaces in the universe, in all the atoms. If they are removed, the universe will shrink to
the size of a fist. He calls these empty spaces interstices and he writes in these interstices.

Q7. How, according to one of Eco’s professors in Italy, do scholars do in their research? How
is Eco’s approach different?

Ans: According to one of Eco’s professors in Italy, scholars made a lot of false hypotheses.
They correct them and at the end they put the conclusion. But Eco told the story of his
research and included his trials and errors. His professor allowed the publication of Eco’s
dissertation as a book.

Q8. What did Umberto Eco learn at the age of 22 that he pursued in his novels?

Ans: At the age of 22, Umberto Eco understood that scholarly books should be written the
way he had done, that is, they should be written by telling the story of the research. He means
to say that they should have the narrative technique. That’s why he started writing novels so
late—at the age of 50.

Q9. How did Eco start writing novels?

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Ans: Eco states that he started writing novels by accident. One day, he had nothing to do, so
he started writing. He felt that novels probably satisfied his taste for narration and he
produced five novels, including the famous The Name of the Rose.

Q10. Did Umberto Eco consider himself a novelist first or an academic scholar? Discuss
briefly.

Ans: Umberto Eco considered himself an academic scholar, a university professor who wrote
novels on Sundays. If somebody said that he was a novelist, that bothered him. He
participated in academic conferences and not the meetings of Pen Clubs and writers. He
identified himself with academic community.

Q11. What makes Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ a very serious novel?

Ans: The Name of the Rose is a very serious novel. It is a detective story at one level but it
also delves into metaphysics, theology and medieval history. Due to these reasons it was
greatly received by the public.

Q12. What, according to Eco, puzzles journalists and publishers?

Ans: According to Umberto Eco, journalists and publishers are puzzled when something
unexpected happens. They believe that people like trash and do not like difficult reading
experiences. But Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose, a serious work, sold between 10 and 15
million copies. This puzzled them.

Q13. What is the reason for the huge success of the novel, The Name of the Rose?

Ans: The reason for the huge success of the novel, according to Eco, is a mystery. Nobody
can predict it. He states that if he had written the novel ten years earlier or ten years later, it
wouldn’t have been the same. So, the time component, its narrative technique, its aspects of
metaphysics, theology and medieval history, made it a grand success.

Q14. Do you think Umberto Eco likes being interviewed? Give reasons for your opinion.

Ans: I think Eco likes being interviewed. His answers to Mukund’s questions are
straightforward, precise and to the point. They are never wavering. He even mentions his
preferences about TV shows. While answering he gets humorous and laughs. Nowhere does
he say anything that may give us this sort of glimpse that he does not like being interviewed.

Q15. Is Umberto’s informal style consciously adopted or natural?

Ans: Umberto’s doctoral thesis was a story of his research and a sum of his experience, his
trials and errors. The thesis was appreciated and published as a book. Umberto then

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developed on his taste for narration and this narrative aspect lends an informal touch to all his
essays and novels. It makes his style alive and reading his works is not dry and boring like
the reading of other academic works.

Long Answer Questions

Q1 Explain the word ‘Interview’ and how many writers find favour with it.
OR
Why do you think Christopher Silvester describes the viewpoints of other writers and
authors when discussing the concept of an interview? Support your opinion with
reference to any one writer cited. (CBSE QUESTION BANK)
Ans

The word interview was inserted 130 years ago. Since then it has become a commonplace in
journalism. In this world, all have to undergo the process of the interview. Thousands of
people are interviewed daily for one or the other kind. Depending on the merit of the
interview, people have claimed in its highest form as a source of truth and in its practice, it is
an art. H.G. Wells remained averse to ‘interview’ and in 1894 he referred to it as an ordeal.
But forty years later he himself was found interviewing Joseph Stalin of Russia. People view
that almost everything reaches us through asking the interviewer who holds a position of
unprecedented power and influence.

Q2 Mukund Padmanabhan was a reporter from ‘The Hindu’. In the context of the
chapter, reveal his traits as an interviewer.
OR
How would you evaluate Mukund Padmanabhan as an interviewer? Mention at least
two qualities he displays in his interview, supported by textual evidence.

Ans. Mukund Padmanabhan was surely a successful and well thought-out reporter who
always used to ask answerable and dexterous questions to his interviewees. He used to plan
and prepare to conduct an interview of a celebrity. He never asked ugly or embarrassing
questions and on the other hand, the celebrity whom he interviewed always seemed to be
comfortable with his questions. Through the interviews, readers not only got the information
about the celebrities but many other important aspects of Mukund’s personality also came in
their knowledge. He asked brief and quality questions to his interviewees scrupulously. He let
the interviewees speak in their own manner and never tried to interrupt or cross-questioned
them.

Q3 Several celebrities despise being interviewed. Is this justified? Why? Why not?
(CBSE 2010)
Ans. There are several celebrities mentioned in this chapter like Rudyard Kipling, VS
Naipaul, H.G. Wells, Saul Bellow, etc. who dislike interviews very strongly. They never
became ready to be interviewed. Most of them considered interviews as an unwarranted
intrusion into their lives. They did not want to reveal the secrets of their personal lives.
Even an interview is considered as an immoral activity, as a crime or sometimes as an assault.
They feel that the interviewers waste their precious time which can be used by them for more
creativity. On the other hand, the common mass takes interviews very positively as they come
to know about the inner and hidden things of their ideals. But interviews have their
drawbacks also.

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Celebrities feel shy and disappointed when they are asked for interviews but they forget that
they become famous and wealthy through the successful interviews General mass become
their fan and devotee by knowing more and more about their ideals. Celebrities are even
worshipped. In this regard, it can be said that an interview cannot be termed as an immoral
activity.

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