Day 1: Before the interview
A journalist had big problems Thursday interviewing Gef Sanhedrin, a completely overlooked and ignored author.
“As for the time we live in, it’s very important for me that an author radiates that he or she has a subject that he or she acknowledges and is not just a process like all the rest of us.”
And why is that?
“I don’t know.”
Excellent. But what kind of human being is Gef? I can tell you that he does exactly that. Besides, he is extremely professional about what he wants with his writing and he loves people, he knows where he would like to see the world move, he is analytically gifted, warm, listening and his company is rewarding. So the question is why you have so much difficulty interviewing him. Are you jealous of him? Does he confuse you? You can help him to become established and you can help his readers to discover him.
“I’d rather make a critical interview with him.”
Stop thinking like that. He’ll be fine. Be open and let him manage the interview. An interview always belongs to the one interviewed. People have forgotten that. You have forgotten that. You should know better as a professional journalist.
“He thinks he’s unique.”
He is as unique as you and i. His advantage is just that he can pull some things out of the bag, show it, in words, the uniqueness that we forget to think about in our stressful everyday life, so stop flashing your ego and take up all the room.
“But I’m skeptical of his uniqueness.”
Until you actually meet him.
“His latest book was about insults among nice gardeners. What is a nice gardener?”
It’s a gardener who smiles at people and gives room. It says on page one in the book.
“But it makes no sense whatsoever. Why are we discussing this?”
Because you are going to interview him.
“But it says on page one in The Journalist’s Manual that people who can explain the position of their subject in the world without knowing the world, our modern world, without wanting to know it and without being up to knowing it or what do I know, is too curly to begin with.”
I feel that meeting with him can become a kind of turning point in your career. A real opportunity.
Day 2: After the interview
What happened? Did the interview go well?
“There are people like him in the world. Knowing that is a real comfort. I hope my interview can get the reader to acknowledge what I have acknowledged. His attitude, his language.”
