One thing that made a really negative impression on me during last night’s event with Mario Vargas Llosa was the low quality of questions the interviewer asked the writer. The entire event was structured as an interview that a professor of Hispanic Literature conducted with the Peruvian writer. Mind you, the event took place at a university, and quite a prestigious one, too.
“So how did you feel when you got the Nobel Prize?” the interviewer asked Vargas Llosa.
The writer shared a funny, detailed story in response.
“So how did you feel when you got the Seix Barral Prize?” the interviewer asked after Vargas Llosa finished the story.
The writer provided a shorter and less interesting response.
“So how did you feel when you got the Romulo Gallegos Prize?” the interviewer asked immediately after that.
At that point, I started to fear that the poor writer would be asked the same question about every single one of the numerous prizes and awards he had won in his long and productive literary career. It’s possible that Vargas Llosa feared the same thing because his answer was a lot less inspired this time.
Eventually, it began to feel like the interviewer was about to ask the writer what his favorite color was.
Vargas Llosa is an easy person to interview because he is a great story-teller and a skilled public speaker. In response to every question, he launches into a fascinating, detailed discussion that the audience follows with bated breath. All that was needed for this event to work out much better than it did was an interviewer who’d taken the trouble to prepare question that were less in keeping with the Cosmo style of interviewing celebrities.
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment