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Levraphael writes:
Why on earth is Oliver Broudy unnerved by Lévy's unbuttoned shirt, and why does he feel he needs to mention that lack of buttoning and his reaction to it?
Who cares? It's inane and distracting.
I couldn't agree more. I know where this comes from though. The "interview with a prominent person over a meal" is one of the oldest, hoariest clichés they teach writers at Journalism School, and editors insist on it when they assign these kinds of stories in the real world.
The writer is expected to make some observations about the appearance of the person and describe the food that person eats, maybe sprinkled with some of the emotional experiences of the interviewer. If these kinds of observations aren’t there, the editors will assert the ancient legend and make you put them in. If you don’t, the company probably won’t reimburse you for the meal. Ugggh. That’s why you’ll see this formula again and again where we have to read about somebody’s ideas interspersed with what they were stuffing their face with.
Why is it that people who make their career out of original writing continue to hew so closely to this cheesy dogma about interview form. Yes, it is inane and distracting.
