After The Rapture, Who Are 'The Leftovers'?

[Jetavan]

"But what if the rapture did actually occur? That's the premise of Tom Perrotta's latest novel, The Leftovers, which examines the aftermath of an unexplained rapturelike event in which millions of people around the globe inexplicably disappear into thin air.

Perrotta tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he got the idea for the novel while traveling around the country, doing speaking engagements for The Abstinence Teacher, his novel about small-town culture wars.

"I spent a lot of time thinking about contemporary Christianity, and obviously the rapture kept coming up," he says. "My first impulse was ... to laugh it off — it's sort of a funny idea, people just floating away. But I kept thinking: What if it did happen? ... I thought, I'm such a skeptic that even if it did happen, I would resist the implications of it, and I also thought that three years later, everyone would have forgotten about it. No matter what horrible thing happens in the world, the culture seems to move on....""

[Iconodule]

I often enjoy Terry Gross's show but she is pretty clueless about religion and tends to pick the most uninteresting lamers to talk about it.

[orthonorm]

I often enjoy Terry Gross's show but she is pretty clueless about religion and tends to pick the most uninteresting lamers to talk about it.

I can't take her.

She comes from the interview camp of:

My question is actually a statement of my knowledge or opinion of your life and work, do you agree or disagree?

And she is SO into authorial intent and books guests she usually just does a puff piece with.

Don't listen to NPR hardly much anymore. Best interviewer they ever had: Diane Rehm. She and Howard Stern are the greatest interviewers of our time. Each the pinnacle of the only two legitimate schools of properly interviewing a guest.

As far as the material for the book, Hal Lindsey much?

[JamesRottnek]

Being unfamiliar with Diane Rehm, and not recalling any Howard Stern interviews, what are the two legitimate schools of properly interviewing a guest?

[Schultz]

I CANNOT stand Diane Rehm.  Her voice is like an icepick in my ear.  Yes, I know she has spasmodic dysphonia.  But I didn't like it before her hiatus in '98.  That being said, I have to agree with orthonorm.

As for proper interview technique, both Rehm and Stern do not let a guest weasel out of answering a question, particularly an important one and doubly so if a guest tries to get away from something they brought up themselves.  And they both manage to do it without coming across like a shark that senses blood in the water.  

[orthonorm]

Being unfamiliar with Diane Rehm, and not recalling any Howard Stern interviews, what are the two legitimate schools of properly interviewing a guest?

Come to chat and you will find out //:=), when I am through, you will leave wondering why you said what you did.

Seriously, I'll fill this out later. I have to go make the world a softer place. But I do mean the above seriously. Diane Rehm just has one snag at times, but a great woman none the less. One of the last of a gracious and firm generation of women.

Nothing but respect for her. The rest of NPR, not so much.

--------------------

Hey Schultz this is my question!

But yeah, pretty much what Schultz said.

Her voice is terrible and yet she and Stern will be the last of the few can get a real interview out of someone.

Since they are so good, a lot of folks avoid them like the plague.

[JamesRottnek]

We have a chat?

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