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 “I’m describing one of my biggest assets. Its name is ineptitude.”

Date of entry:

Title of article / chapter: Studs Terkel: A Life in Words, Chapter 10-Interviewing an Interviewer (from our coursepack-pp44-55)

Writer: Tony Parker (words of Studs Terkel)

Description:

This chapter is formatted as a transcript of an interview with Studs Terkel, considered by many to be an authority on the subject of interviews. Similar to Studs, Parker removed himself from the transcript so that there is “less between the reader and the speaker”. The effect is something like a long rambling by a single man, with hints of outside instruction or guidance. Basically the entire chapter feels like a long conversation between the reader and Studs, something he strove for in his work, although I don’t have a chance to talk back.

Studs describes his methods and beliefs when it comes to interviews, revealing all of his best tricks and secrets. He explains how he prepares and addresses different kinds of people in different kinds of settings-from actors to the “uncelebrated people”, and from radio stations, where there is a lot of structure, to free-form interviews. His tone is helpful and explanatory yet still authoritative-a voice of experience. He consistently reiterates power of conversation over interview, a central theme throughout the chapter (or transcript). He explains with examples how this method makes for better recording and better work-thinking about the comfort of the interviewee, the interviewer, and eventually the listener. He moves away from the word interview however, associating it with words like “interrogation” and “inquisition”. Studs covers many more of his core tenets, the pillars of his practice that made him such a great listener and documentarian. Over the course of the chapter, he manages to reveal as much about his own character, his love of humanity, his passion for working, as he does about the actual work he does. In essence, he exemplifies all the qualities of an ideal interview subject.

Response:

Like anyone who will ever read this interview, I fell a little bit in love with Studs Terkel over the course of 11 pages. I know we’ve discussed him briefly in class, but I feel like I know everything about him now, and in so short a time! He really is the perfect interview subject, I’m guessing he picked up clues from a lifetime or experience.

There is way too much information in this reading to discuss in one response. I could write about 10 different things! I feel like I learned some really important lessons to keep in mind in the future, should I ever attempt to conduct my own interviews. So because this is such a rich resource, I’ll just focus on two questions that I wrote down in the margins. The first was from his description of the hypothetical radio author interview on page 161 (44 in the coursepack)where he wrote

“You’d be surprised how many people don’t do that elementary thing (read the author’s work before the interview)