The Interview by Christopher Silvester
Quick answer: The Interview, CBSE Class 12 Flamingo chapter 7: Christopher Silvester on the interview as a form, then Mukund Padmanabhan asks Umberto Eco about interstices and his novel.
Rudyard Kipling's wife recorded that two reporters had assaulted them in Boston, and by assault she meant an interview; the couple were furious for days.
Christopher Silvester's introduction to the Penguin Book of Interviews and an interview with Umberto Eco make up chapter 7 of Class 12 Flamingo.
The chapter in brief
Part one surveys the interview, a form about 130 years old. Some see it as a source of truth and an art; others as an unwarranted intrusion. Naipaul felt people lose part of themselves; Lewis Carroll had a horror of interviewers; Kipling condemned it yet interviewed Mark Twain; H. G. Wells called it an ordeal yet interviewed Stalin; Saul Bellow compared it to thumbprints on his windpipe. Silvester concludes that the interview remains a supremely serviceable medium of communication.
Part two is Mukund Padmanabhan's interview with Umberto Eco. Eco explains how he does so much by using interstices, the empty moments of the day. His scholarly writing has a narrative, personal style. He calls himself an academic who writes novels on Sundays, and is puzzled by the success of The Name of the Rose, published in 1980, which sold ten to fifteen million copies despite its difficult medieval subject. Perhaps readers want difficult experiences; the timing, he says, is a mystery.
The people in it
Writers on both sides of the microphone.
- Christopher Silvester: the editor weighing the interview's claims and complaints.
- The objectors: Naipaul, Carroll, Kipling, Wells, Bellow, each with a memorable image of intrusion.
- Umberto Eco: scholar first, novelist second, cheerful about his own fame.
- Mukund Padmanabhan: the interviewer.
Themes and meaning
Exam readings include the power and ethics of the interview, celebrity and privacy, and Eco's philosophy of using time. The sharper point is the chapter's structure: a critique of interviews is followed by a successful one, so the text argues with itself and lets Eco's candour answer Bellow's windpipe.
The craft: a form that interrogates itself
Silvester stacks famous complaints until the reader expects a verdict, then withholds it. The interview that follows is the verdict by demonstration: Eco is generous, precise and funny. Writers can steal the pairing of argument and example, and Eco's own tip about interstices, which is advice on writing time as much as on living.
For the exam
Quick material for the Class 12 exam.
- Word meanings: serviceable, useful; intrusion, unwelcome entry; ordeal, painful experience; interstices, small gaps between things; empirical, based on observation; celebrity, fame.
- Character sketch of Umberto Eco in 60 words: An Italian professor of semiotics who wrote fiction on the side, Eco combines scholarship with playfulness. He fills the interstices of his day with work, writes academic prose with a narrative voice, and treats his enormous success with The Name of the Rose as a puzzle rather than a triumph. He identifies with the academic community first and the novelist second.
- Q: What are the two opinions about interviews in part one? A: Some see the interview as a source of truth and an art; others, including several famous writers, as an intrusion that diminishes the subject.
- Q: What does Eco mean by interstices? A: The empty spaces in a day, such as waiting for a lift, which he uses for writing and thinking.
- Q: How does Eco explain the success of The Name of the Rose? A: He cannot; he suggests readers may seek difficult experiences and calls the timing a mystery.
- Summary in 100 words: Christopher Silvester traces the interview from its beginnings about 130 years ago, noting that some consider it an art and a source of truth while writers like V. S. Naipaul, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells and Saul Bellow found it intrusive. He judges it a serviceable medium nonetheless. Mukund Padmanabhan then interviews Umberto Eco, who explains his productivity through using interstices, describes the narrative style of his scholarly writing, identifies himself as an academic who writes novels on Sundays, and expresses puzzlement at the ten to fifteen million copies sold by The Name of the Rose.
What writers can take from this
- Name at least three of the writers who objected to interviews and attach each to his phrase.
- Define interstices with Eco's own example of the lift.
- Point out the structural irony: a critique of interviews followed by a good interview.
- Writers, pair an argument with a demonstration and let the reader judge.
- Try Eco's habit in your own week: use the empty minutes and see how much prose accumulates.
Try it yourself
Write a story told as an interview in which the subject spends the first half complaining about interviews and the second half revealing more than any essay could. The reader must decide which half was true.
Questions
What is the theme of The Interview?
The chapter weighs the interview as a form, powerful and intrusive at once, through the complaints of famous writers, and then demonstrates its value with Mukund Padmanabhan's conversation with Umberto Eco about time, style and unexpected success.
What does Umberto Eco mean by interstices?
The empty spaces of a day, such as the moments spent waiting for a lift to arrive, which he fills with writing and thinking. He credits this habit for producing so many books alongside his academic work.
Why did Saul Bellow compare interviews to thumbprints on his windpipe?
He felt interviews were a kind of assault on his privacy and breath, a vivid image of the intrusion many writers resent. Silvester cites him among those who found the form an ordeal.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
Enter a Writory story contest
Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 30 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.