Interview anyone alive or dead (but not fictional)

[Cade]

For my application to the school paper I need to write a fictional interview with anyone I wanted, alive or dead, (but they have to be real people).

I seem to have run against a wall, but I'm sure you all haven't. Any ideas on who your choice would be?

[Szilard]

How about me?

[†Seer†]

Criss Angel... Or Chris, however he spells it.

He's crazy...

[Mauve Shirt]

Me!!!!

Aw, it has to be a fictional interview.

Little Kuriboh!

[Tempest Fennac]

Rasputin could be an interesting choice due to his abilities as well as his involvement with the last Tzar of Russia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasputin .

[SDF]

For me it would be Benjamin Franklin. Genius scientist, founding father, and ladies man. His religious views, while undiscussable here, were very interesting. My favorite renaissance man.

[Agamid]

Robert Smith (he is such an insane character, i think i would just laugh the entire interview... well, after i got over the slack-jawed "oh.my.god. it's actually robert smith" time).

[Terumitsu]

Interview the person who discovered how to make fire... That was of at least marginal significance... I think..

[Telonius]

Thomas Malory. Lots of stuff I'd love to ask him, both about his own biography and about how to craft a story that people will be talking about for centuries to come.

[Shraik]

Leon Trostsky, there is someone dead you can interview

[InaVegt]

For me it would be Benjamin Franklin. Genius scientist, founding father, and ladies man. His religious views, while undiscussable here, were very interesting. My favorite renaissance man.

Not to mention plagiarist of independence declarations.

For reference: Act of Abjuration (http://www.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1501-1600/plakkaat/plakkaaten.htm)

[Telonius]

I'm guessing it reads better in Dutch?

[SDF]

Franklin didn't write the declaration of independence. But he did invent the bifocals, the volunteer fire department, America's first public library, and the armonica. :P

[Ivius]

Linus Torvalds? :smallamused:

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

Oh, I have many on this list.

Abrahan Lincoln: One of his most fascinating aspects was that he could be eloquent, as any politician. But then the "country bumpkin" could easily make an appearance. I mean, he spoke for only a few minutes during his famous Gettysburgh address, saying in a short time what the general who spoke before him failed to say in over two hours. Yet when asked what was toubling him pertaining to all the political nonsense in Washington during the American Civil War (or Second American Revolution, for many Southeners), he came out with, "There's too many pigs for the tits." :smallwink:

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill: Still spoken of with reverence to this day, this powerful leader of the UK is likely worth a few days worth of interviewing. :smallsmile:

Adolf Hitler: Lunatic though he may have been judged by history, he was also a brilliant leader. Because I'm Jewish, he'd likely order my death after the interview. Still, I think it'd be interesting to pick his brain for a few hours. :smallcool:

Sir Frederick Banting: The facts of how he "discovered" insulin are fairly well documented. My interview would be more along the lines of how he FELT during various stages of his life, as well as during his experiments to refine the medication that would save millions of lives. :smallsmile:

Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Professor of rhetoric at Bowden College, he was refused to join the Union forces during the American Civil War. Thus, he took a sobatical, and THEN joined the army. He wrote a great deal about his war experiences, and I'm sure if I did enough searching I could find that which was needed to avoid an interview altogether. Still, to hear his voice and his fresh recollection of events would fascinate me to no end. :smallcool:

Sun Tsu: Only a fool would not want to interview the author of The Art of War. :smalltongue:

Ioseb Vissarionovich Jugashvili, AKA Joseph Stalin: "History is written by the winners." This quote about war tends to hold true, and Stalin is one of those figures that has been villified in the western world. US hatred of "those dirty commies" didn't simply bloom from a collective active imagination. What were the personal thoughts of the man who was both loved and hated by those whom he would eventually rule? :smallconfused:

My list goes on and on. These are just some examples, which I hope will give ideas for your assignment. :smallsmile:

[Semidi]

I'd interview Aristotle or Nietzsche.

Or... David Bowie.

[Jimblee]

William Shatner; now that would be quite the interview, eh?

And maybe that guy who does the Oxy-Clean commercials

[The Rose Dragon]

OK, usually I go with Zooey Deschanel, but let's try something different, shall we?

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Because I lack in nationalism, and would definitely want to learn what motivated him to wage war against the greatest nations of the world, both militarily and politically, and succeed.

And because I personally think he was more of a dictator than most people would admit, and would like to see if that's true.

[Cyrano]

George Washington Carver.
Inventor of peanut products.

[Mauve Shirt]

Abraham Lincoln was a great speaker and everything, but I bet there are like 4 other people in your class who'll interview him.
Also, Martin Luther King is popular.
Go obscure!

[The Rose Dragon]

I'm telling you, Ataturk. No one will consider interviewing him, even though he is considered to be one of the greatest political and military geniuses of the 20th century.

If you follow my advice and someone else turns out to have interviewed him, congratulate him on my behalf then come and stab me.

[Cyrano]

I'm telling you, Ataturk. No one will consider interviewing him, even though he is considered to be one of the greatest political and military geniuses of the 20th century.

If you follow my advice and someone else turns out to have interviewed him, congratulate him on my behalf then come and stab me.

Can....can we do that anyway?
It's just...I got myself a lovely sharp implement and I need to break it in.

[The Rose Dragon]

Can....can we do that anyway?
It's just...I got myself a lovely sharp implement and I need to break it in.

For a beautiful girl / handsome guy / good-looking hermaphrodite, I will be stabbed a hundred times.

For you, D'anna, I'll let you poke me very lightly once. :smalltongue:

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

William Shatner; now that would be quite the interview, eh?


Not really. Unless you enjoy talking at length about breeding horses.

[13_CBS]

Genghis Kahn. Ask him how he managed to come up with all those brilliant ideas that let him set the foundations for the largest, pre-gunpowder era Empire in history.

[Zarrexaij]

Franz Kafka or Nikola Tesla. The former is an underappreciated writer, the latter people only recognize due to Tesla coils (but not his advancements in electricity).

I don't think I have to tell you their lives were extremely interesting. Franz Kafka suffered from depression (and died of TB) and Tesla was... well, a little strange towards the end of his life.

[Saithis Bladewing]

Adolf Hitler: Lunatic though he may have been judged by history, he was also a brilliant leader. Because I'm Jewish, he'd likely order my death after the interview. Still, I think it'd be interesting to pick his brain for a few hours. :smallcool:

Beat me to it.

Actually I like all of the examples in your post. All great minds who I'd love to speak to.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Adolf Hitler: Lunatic though he may have been judged by history, he was also a brilliant leader. Because I'm Jewish, he'd likely order my death after the interview. Still, I think it'd be interesting to pick his brain for a few hours. :smallcool:

Hitler was no lunatic, I'm afraid. Maybe a bit of a sociopath, but perfectly sane, I assure you.

As for interesting people to interview, how about Da Vinci? He's got plenty of mysteries left to explain and he was one of the very last homo universale.
Socrates or Aristoteles would be very interesting as well, but don't bother inviting Plato, he's full of ****.
Seneca the Elder, Cicero, Cato ... There's plenty of interesting Romans, I'm sure.
You could interview Jack the Ripper to ask him who he really was, but in a paper that'd be very difficult...
Stephen Hawking's alive, but apparantely that's no problem, so he'd be interesting as well.


I might think of more. I'm sure there's plenty more interesting people to talk to.

[Copacetic]

Dr. Seuss, Brillaint writer and amazing person.

Steve Irwin. He was my child hood idol.

[Felixaar]

George Washington Carver.
Inventor of peanut products.

And I always thought he was the guy who chopped up Geogre Washington :smallamused:

[Terraoblivion]

There is one problem with interviewing Sun Tzu about the Art of War, Bor. That is that he didn't write it, it was merely credited to his name to make it seem older and thus wiser. It was a compilation of various bits and scraps of older instruction manuals made in Qin in the third century BC, whereas Sun Tzu was a general in Wu in the sixth century BC. Also having read the book i have to say that a lot of the advice is so basic as to be banal and most of the rest is so specific as to be pointless today.

As for who to interview i have to say Deng Xiaoping. He more than Mao or Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek) developed the framework for modern China, the China that managed to win the right to host the Olympics as well as the China that is constantly discussed for its economic significance. Really he is one of the great and surprisingly unknown figures of the 20th century.

Atatürk as has been said would also be interesting, though i don't have much to add about him.

Karl Marx could also be an option. He was onne of the most significant and controversial philosophers of the last two centuries, the founder of much of the political thought since and of course one of the most significant political movements in the 19th and 20th century. While generally seen as being closely related to the Leninist branch of communism he is the basis for all later socialism including social democracy, one of the two major ideologies in most European countries.

Otto von Bismarck the greatest statesman of the 19th century is quite a good choice as well. He unified Germany effectively setting the stage for the politics of the great powers for nearly a century. In addition to this he managed to keep this union out of entanglements and hostilities with other nations right up until the point where the emperor sacked him because of his carefulness in international politics.

Lots of other people to pick out there, these are just the ones i find most interesting and relevant to pick.

Socrates would be a bad idea for a fictional interview like this since next to nothing is actually known about him. We know next to nothing about his philosophical ideas and both his life story and politics are quite sketchy as well. The figure of Socrates and his teachings that we know is the version Plato uses to present his own philosophies and it clashes sharply with the only other source we have to the life and thoughts of Sokrates, this being the writings of Xenophon.

In general avoid the ancient world as it is too full of holes and poorly covered characters to make for a good interview. If it was me i wouldn't even think about picking anybody earlier than the 18th century and would prefer someone later.

[Bag_of_Holding]

Hmm, my natural choice would be Rich Burlew or Tom Siddell (the creators of my two very favourite webcomics- Oots and Gunnerkrigg Court, respectively), but that sounds too geeky, does it not?

If we're talking about someone *big* (implying "important"), I'd go for Bernard Werber (may be a wrong spelling, but he's a French author), Paulo Coelho (I really liked his book "Veronica decides to die"), and perhaps Anthony Burgess. Yeah, I'm a bookish person.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Socrates would be a bad idea for a fictional interview like this since next to nothing is actually known about him. We know next to nothing about his philosophical ideas and both his life story and politics are quite sketchy as well. The figure of Socrates and his teachings that we know is the version Plato uses to present his own philosophies and it clashes sharply with the only other source we have to the life and thoughts of Sokrates, this being the writings of Xenophon.

Plenty is known about Socrates, actually (not his personal life, agreed, but his philosophy as far as he had one, yes). And I was led to believe Xenophon and Plato don't really clash up until the point Socrates actually dies. Besides, it's a fictional interview, I'm sure you could have your own view on who they actually were. When we speak about historical figures, we never really speak about who they really were, but about who they are assumed to be by the public.

For this reason alone Jesus seems like an interesting interviewee.
Confucius would be very nice too. The man has an answer to everything.
And how about Kant, Shakespeare, Marat, De Sade, Rousseau, Descartes, Ockham, Proudhon, Napoleon, ... ?

[Terraoblivion]

I was taught in both high school and the university and by my father, a history professor, that Plato and Xenophon has pretty much no points in which they agree on how Socrates was. Their disagreement between Plato's extremely positive view of Socrates as the wisest man ever and Xenophon's description that was extremely negative. So negative in fact that Søren Kirkegaard remarked that if Socrates had been the way Xenophon said it was perfectly understandable that the Athenians executed just to be rid of him. As such, from what i have, learned it is generally held that the thoughts of Socrates as presented by Plato is really Plato's own thoughts presented through the narrative conceit of Socratic dialogs.

[MrEdwardNigma]

I was taught in both high school and the university and by my father, a history professor, that Plato and Xenophon has pretty much no points in which they agree on how Socrates was. Their disagreement between Plato's extremely positive view of Socrates as the wisest man ever and Xenophon's description that was extremely negative. So negative in fact that Søren Kirkegaard remarked that if Socrates had been the way Xenophon said it was perfectly understandable that the Athenians executed just to be rid of him. As such, from what i have, learned it is generally held that the thoughts of Socrates as presented by Plato is really Plato's own thoughts presented through the narrative conceit of Socratic dialogs.

I was taught it is generally held Xenophon described Socrates less accurately than Plato but not differently. The two descriptions did not come into conflict, but Plato's made more sense (in that it was better written, the dialogues were more accurately noted down). And yes, I was taught this in both school and university, though not by my father as he really doesn't know much about the ancient Greeks.
Also, I've never liked the idea of Socrates' ideas really being Plato's as I think everything Plato said after Socrates' death is absolute rubbish while the stuff Socrates supposedly said is brilliant. not only that, but they're completely different philosophies.
I personally think that while Plato had a better memory for noting down the words of Socrates but wasn't necessarily smarter than Xenophon for example. he was simply better at remembering things and considering the number of people who liked his theories better at talking too (and better at writing, which again makes his dialogues of Socrates more interesting).

Getting back to the subject of the thread, Marcel Proust might make another interesting person to interview.

[Terraoblivion]

Plato didn't write anything before Socrates death in 399 BC. He did write quite a bit some time later, however, including both Socratic dialogs and works like The State which was somewhat...freaky to say the least. In any case neither Socrates nor Plato are the best described or most prolific philosopher's ever, nor can they be said to be the most relevant to the modern world, practically nothing said in any of Plato's writings remotely mirrors anything believed today and much of it is in fact the direct opposite of the views that shape modern thought.

As for other people who could be interesting then i guess that Nietzsche after he grew truly crazy in his old age would be hilarious. Just remember that he wasn't a nazi and his association with nazism mostly came about due to his sister editing many of his writings rather heavily. Well that and an unfortunate similarity in words used by him and the nazis, even if they meant different things with them.