Method
The interviews in Underground were conducted throughout 1996. They were taped, transcribed, and then edited. Draft interviews were then sent to the interviewees before publication for fact-checking and to allow them to cut any parts they did not want published.
At the start of each interview, Murakami asked general questions about the subject's life, allowing him to build a background picture of them that is included before each interview. He did this to "give each a 'face,'" thus avoiding creating "a collection of disembodied voices." His interviews with victims have been seen as similar in style to those of Studs Terkel's Working, an influence that Murakami acknowledges along with that of journalist Bob Greene. His interviews with Aum members are intentionally more combative.
Read more about this topic: Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack And The Japanese Psyche
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“You know, I have a method all my own. If you’ll notice, the coat came first, then the tie, then the shirt. Now, according to Hoyle, after that the pants should be next. There’s where I’m different. I go for the shoes next. First the right, then the left. After that, it’s every man for himself.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)
“Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best 20-20 hindsight. It’s good for seeing where you’ve been. It’s good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can’t tell you where you ought to go.”
—Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)
“In child rearing it would unquestionably be easier if a child were to do something because we say so. The authoritarian method does expedite things, but it does not produce independent functioning. If a child has not mastered the underlying principles of human interactions and merely conforms out of coercion or conditioning, he has no tools to use, no resources to apply in the next situation that confronts him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)