Word: fallacious
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ORIANA FALLACI has made a name for herself asking questions of others. Her unmistakeable voice has been heard, over the last five years, in the Italian magazine L'Europeo, in the New Republic, in newspapers around the world, interviewing public figures in politics and the arts. Her newest book, Interview with History, (recently translated into English) collects some of these controversial conversations--Fallaci's interviews have caused uproar on at least three continents--into one volume organized around the theme of the leader in history. The book contains 14 of the interviews Fallaci bagged between 1969 and 1974; on exhibit...
Cosmopolitan praised the book as a marvelous gossip column. But Fallaci claims it is much more; she describes the work in its preface as "a document straddling journalism and history." In fact, her art--and this kind of interviewing is an art--claims the prerogatives of both, yet accepts the responsibilities of neither. As a result, her methodology and the material she gathers raises a lot of questions...
...following is an interview with Fallaci, in which she responded to some of these questions. Held in my imagination, the Fallaci-style discussion took place in a hall of mirrors. In every pane you could see the diminutive, dynamic--her whirlwind manner is famous--Italian, reflected from a different angle. I can't say for sure I ever say her, in all the fragmented images and quotations. But Fallaci was not distressed when I told her this at the end of the interview; she does not believe in objective reality. She repeated what she had said in the preface...
...engaging she can be. If she uses phrases like "And, listen" or "Truly, then" when addressing the reader in the preface, imagine what she was like in this echoing, reflecting space where we spoke. Despite my reservations, I found myself fighting the sort of verbal duel to which Fallaci loves to challenge others, and what is more, fighting with her own weapons: taking things she has said in different situations and putting them together to formulate her answer, attacking her to get a response, creating for her a persona, making her response fit my questions. But unlike Fallaci, I admit...
...Oriana Fallaci: You'd be surprised how limited the fame of any journalist, especially a foreigner, is, in America. But about success. As I said when interviewed by Esquire, "There's nothing that changes one like success. Success, if you're not stupid, is a marvelous way to grow up. And power. Of course. You lose your complexes and become more secure. Success and power. You grow up if you can use them well...