The Interview - Part 2

3^rd April, 2020

                         The Interview

Good morning Gentlemen

Welcome to the second blog of the chapter The Interview.

Day before yesterday you did some MCQs based on the portion explained in the blog. Today I will be sharing the answers to those MCQs for you to check your answers.

1. b. Interviewer

2. c. Choked and suffocated

3. b.  A supremely serviceable medium of communication

4. d. V.S. Naipaul

5. a. Interview

If all your answers are correct, well done! If they don’t then don’t worry, you might just want to read the notes again for better understanding.

Today we are also going to revise what we learnt yesterday by answering the following short questions in our notebook:-

This is your homework that you can do after you have finished reading the whole blog.

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

Q2. Why do most celebrity writers despise being interviewed?

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

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

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

Q6. Why does the interviewer today hold a position of power and influence?

                                                                            PART-2

The focus of today’s blog is on the second part of the chapter. This is an actual interview of a writer named Umberto Eco.

This man is Umberto Eco. He died in the year 2016.

It is ironic that Umberto Eco hails from Italy, a country that has faced the most challenging times these past few months due to Corona Virus epidemic. He must be thanking God that he did not stay alive to see this.

This man has many acclaims to his name, some of which are –

1. A novelist

2. A writer of Children’s books

3. A philosopher

4. A literary critic

5. An essayist

6. An editor and translator of few books from French to Italian

7. Wrote academic texts

8. Wrote Newspaper articles

9. Known Pre-dominantly for his work on SEMIOTICS – The study of signs.

There is so much more to this man that would not fit in just a blog. However, let us now also look at the person who interviewed him - Mukund Padmanabhan

Mukund Padmanabhan has been the Editor of the newspaper  The Hindu from March 2016 and retired on February 28, 2019. He has a Masters in Philosophy and worked briefly as a lecturer at the University of Delhi before switching to journalism.

Let us move ahead –

Before we look at the key points in part 2 of the chapter, here is the vocabulary that you might have come across while reading the chapter on your own. Just like in the previous blog we explored some 

new words and also looked at their extrapolatory meaning, we shall do the same here as well.

Word	Meaning	Extrapolation
Formidable	inspiring fear or respect	She is a formidable figure who commands a great deal of respect .
Semiotics	the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.	The semiotics of his body language revealed he was lying
literary interpretation	Explaining or simplifying any literature	Magic is a child's literary interpretation of a miracle in a fairy-tale, or anything they can't understand.
medieval aesthetics	the formal study of art, especially in relation to the idea of beauty related to the Middle Ages (= the period in European history fromabout AD 600 to AD 1500)	Medieval aesthetics refers to the general philosophy of beauty during the Medieval period.
Staggeringly	Astonishing	But with such a staggeringly high level of unemployment, a skill shortage is fast developing.
intellectual superstardom	the state of being extremely famous in academics	From there, his fame quickly accumulated into intellectual superstardom.
Pursue	to follow someone or something	He said that she was tired of being pursued by crowds of journalists.
Philosophical	a group of theories and ideas related to the understanding of a particular subject	You just have to be philosophical about losing some games, because you can’t win them all.
Ethical	relating to beliefs about what is morally right and wrong	Transplantation of organs from living donors raises ethical issues.
Eliminate	to remove or take away someone or something	A move towards healthy eating could help eliminate heart disease.
Interstices	a space between things or events	The wall was old and crumbling with plants growing in the interstices between the bricks.
Playful	funny and not serious	She gave him a playful push on his shoulder.
Invariably	Always	The train is invariably late.
Depersonalised	to remove from a person, organization, object, etc.	He thinks that wearing uniforms at school depersonalizes children.
doctoral dissertation	a long piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one that is done in order to receive a degree especially a Ph.D. at college or university	These doctoral dissertations were produced by graduate students who worked for many years in the city and who have collectively rewritten the history of the city.
Hypotheses	an idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts but has not yet been proved	Several hypotheses for global warming have been suggested.
Narrative	Telling a story or  describing a series of events	You have to supply a narrative thread that allows the audience to make a connection with one or more characters.
Spectacularly	in a very beautiful way that people admire	At night, the city is spectacularly lit.
Seminal	containing important new ideas that influence later developments	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is regarded as a seminal work of American literature.
Shrugs	to raise your shoulders and then lower them in order to say you do not know or are not interested	He shrugged his shoulders as if to say that there was nothing he could do about it.
Delves	to search, especially as if by digging, in order to find a thing or information	She delved into her pocket to find some change.
Yarn	a story, usually a long one with a lot of excitement or interest	He knew how to spin a good yarn (= tell a good story)
Metaphysics	the part of philosophy that is about understanding existence and knowledge	Metaphysics he held to be based on psychology.
Theology	the study of religion	"At Padua," he said to a friend, "I studied law to please my father, and theology to please myself."

Emergency room	Emergency Room is an American medical drama television series created by novelist and medical doctor Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994, to April 2, 2009, with a total of 331 episodes spanning 15 seasons.	-
cathedral	a very large, usually stone, building for Christian worship. It is the largest and most important church of a diocese	I was woken up by the chimes of the cathedral bells.
Miami vice	Miami Vice is an American crime drama television series.  The series ran for five seasons on NBC from September 16, 1984 to January 25, 1990.	-

Answers to the short questions will be shared in tomorrow's blog. Long answers along with value points will also be shared in tomorrow's blog. 

Till then, Keep learning, keep encouraging yourself to do your best. 

Happy Learning. 
Stay Safe. 

God bless you all.