Douglas Coupland führt das erste Interview seines Lebens – mit Morrissey. Es ist nicht wirklich ein Interview dabei herausgekommen, aber ein schöner Artikel, in dem Coupland auch etwas über das „Medium“ Interview an sich sagt. Und etwas über Morrisseys riesigen Kopf und darüber, dass der Herr inzwischen wieder dem Zölibat abgeschworen hat, was laut Coupland seiner Musik ganz gut getan hat: Papal attraction.

My own experience with being interviewed is mixed. I suppose they’re a part of my job, and as I would like readers to connect with my books, I do them. I’ve also made many lifelong friends whom I first encountered as interviewers – as a writer, they’re a terrific way to meet and add smart new people to one’s life. But in recent years I’ve come to question the process. It’s too artificial and, in 2006, oddly archaic. And mostly, it involves too many levels of disbelief suspension: Hi. I’m your interviewer. I have this magic totem called a Sony, and I’m going to put it on the table here, and as long as the Sony is there I possess whatever power over you that you allow me to have. If you grant me no power, I will turn on you and brand you an asshole in print and trash your work. If you give me too much power, I will be contemptuous of you and also trash you and your work. If you’re too nice, I will despise you. If you’re too bland, I’ll just phone this interview in and we’ll both have wasted valuable time.

To me, interviews are mostly about trying not to make the interviewer think I’m too much of an asshole. I think that’s the experience with most interviews these days, mine and most everybody else’s. Let’s face it, pretty much any info you need is already out there on Google. Interviews never go away any longer. They just pile up and up and up for the rest of time. If people want to know something about a subject, they can just find it themselves. All that remains is control of the asshole yes/no switch. Do you want an interviewer to flip it? Remember – if you don’t want people thinking you’re an asshole, it means you allow your interviewer to torture you. It all boils down to how strongly you believe in the totemic Sony.

(Und zack! ist der neue Coupland, Jpod, der am 18. Mai erscheint, auf meinem Wunschzettel.)