05 July 2009
the art of interviewing
In the past few months, for one reason or another, I've interviewed several writers, philosophical and literary, and even been interviewed myself (albeit for about three minutes) on the BBC world service. But what ... is an interview? What is it to interview someone well? The brief BBC experience confirmed to me that the primary interview-mode of the broadcaster is the bark (blame Paxman). One is not asked a question and allowed to answer: one begins to respond and then is interrupted with another, different question, delivered in an incredulous and pre-emptively dismissive tone. You can see it in the HardTalk interview with Badiou, with most interviews on NewsNight and in the way Chris Morris takes up the tone to demolish it in The Day Today and Brass Eye. The following clip is a discomforting example:
Fifteen hundred pounds?!? That's a *pathetic* amount of money! You could raise more money by auctioning dogs!
On the other hand, if you're sitting there talking to someone you already admire because, oh I don't know, they've written a great book or ten or set up a brilliant publishing company, it's hard not to nod along to everything they say, or interrupt only with a 'yes, yes!' or emit excessive giggles at the merest hint of a joke (this stuff is excruciating to hear on playback). I'm not sure I've got the critical thing down yet, though I'm not about to become all BBC about it...Lotringer wins top points for bringing along his own recorder in case mine failed (extremely anxiety-inducing they are, whirring away whilst you wonder whether you remembered to press record or not). But then again, he's been interviewing people for years...
Fifteen hundred pounds?!? That's a *pathetic* amount of money! You could raise more money by auctioning dogs!
On the other hand, if you're sitting there talking to someone you already admire because, oh I don't know, they've written a great book or ten or set up a brilliant publishing company, it's hard not to nod along to everything they say, or interrupt only with a 'yes, yes!' or emit excessive giggles at the merest hint of a joke (this stuff is excruciating to hear on playback). I'm not sure I've got the critical thing down yet, though I'm not about to become all BBC about it...Lotringer wins top points for bringing along his own recorder in case mine failed (extremely anxiety-inducing they are, whirring away whilst you wonder whether you remembered to press record or not). But then again, he's been interviewing people for years...
