J.K. Rowling delivers commencement address at Harvard.

[ColbertWatcher]

J. K. Rowling delivers commencement address at Harvard June 5, 2008.

"Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know."

--Full Text Harvard University Gazette Online

On YouTube, in three parts

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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(ON EDIT: Credit fark for the link)

[bean fidhleir]

1. There's a certain symmetry about that idea.

An author of fiction talking to future perpetrators of fiction.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Please watch all the videos, or at the very least read the text.

It is a very good address.

[bean fidhleir]

7. Oh, I don't doubt it is. But does that impeach my observation?

She was made a billionaire by the publishing industry. Her success was constructed by a system that pretends the successes and failures it constructs are natural. Her seven-volume first novel is considerably less well-written than most first novels that get published, let alone those that get the MASSIVE worldwide publicity hers got. The best thing that can be said about the HP books is that the first two captured the posterized drama that imbues the lives of that age group.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. You haven't read it? Watch the videos? n/t

[bean fidhleir]

9. I choose not to have flash on my system, but I've read the transcript

She's very intelligent, and it was a good address.

But does that impeach my observation? It seems to me to be fairly important: her success was manufactured. Think of all the implications of that!

[ColbertWatcher]

10. She addressed that in her speech!

I do not necessarily agree that her success is manufactured necessarily.

Perhaps you can start another thread to discuss this, because I would rather not have this thread--a thread about her Harvard address--highjacked.

[bean fidhleir]

11. She did? Not that I saw.

So what do you hope for this thread then? That many people will reply, each saying some variation on "it was a good speech"? Because it was a very good speech, so why should people say anything else?

[ColbertWatcher]

12. I hope people discuss the speech.

What she said in it, how they feel about imagination and how they define success.

Just as she did in her speech.

[bean fidhleir]

13. Good luck. (nt)

[Hekate]

3. She writes so very well -- thanks for finding this. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

4. I did not find it; it was on fark. n/t

[Hekate]

5. Sorry--I don't even know what fark is

:blush:

But I am a great fan of Jo Rowling and Harry Potter. She's just exceptional.

Hekate

[ColbertWatcher]

6. It is an amazing speech, it's not what I would expect...

...from someone who is known for writing "children's books".

Fark is fark.com a news aggregator similar to DU, but dedicated to news that really isn't news.

[Hekate]

14. Children's books? Yes and no. May I invite you to read them?

I suppose it depends on how you feel about fantasy fiction, but in fact she falls into more than one genre. When I was a pre-teen I happened on several books written for kids by British authors -- in at least a couple of them the kids spent the school year in boarding schools while their parents were off in India or Africa working in the Queen's civil service. What an unbelievably alien concept that was for an American kid growing up in Hawaii. Hogwarts, although a school of magic, is recognizably a very British boarding school.

Of course Harry Potter is only 11 when the series starts, but she tosses him smack into the beginning of a Hero's Journey. He suffers, finds allies, proves his courage and cleverness, and slays a monster. Not bad for a kid of 11, and there's enough depth and good writing to keep an adult happy too. Each book becomes darker and more complex, and as Harry matures the writing does too. Young grade-schoolers are reading Book 1 with great pleasure, but I wouldn't recommend the last several books to that age group at all.

The magic is fun, and the themes are ageless and her writing skills make these books real page-turners. I can hardly wait till my grandson is old enough to read -- but in my family I have an aunt who just retired from being a dean and professor of nursing at a university, and she's such a fan that her colleagues gave her a Potter-themed retirement party and a Sorting Hat.

Hekate

[ColbertWatcher]

15. You are correct, of course.

But, I use that phrase as only a short cut.

How fun to have a retirement party with a Harry Potter theme!

[ColbertWatcher]

16. Morning kick. n/t

[MedleyMisty]

17. The first sentence reminds me of something that always troubled me in her books

She has plenty of empathy for humans, but not so much for other species - I couldn't stand it when the spiders were tortured in Defense Against the Dark Arts or when kittens would be turned into inanimate objects.

But besides that, yes, it is a great speech and I agree with her.

[ColbertWatcher]

19. If it is limited to her books...

...then I am sure it can be attributed to symbolism.

Not an excuse, however.

Maybe she will address that in her next book(s).

[fed-up]

18. thanks, just sent to 19 YO son-we're both fans-son rereads series each time new book comes out :) nt

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Glad you enjoyed it. n/t