Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Rowling - Harvard Commencement

It's clearly a day for great speeches at YouTube!

J. K. Rowling gave the commencement address this year at Harvard (as I learned from GrrlScientist, a source of so much great stuff).

I read the first Harry Potter book (but let me link to a full box set instead), which kept me delighted with its transformations of not simply the classics she studied, but clearly some very broad reading, into the wonderfully wacky story she was telling. So I was a bit surprised by GrrlScientist's "who knew?" about Rowling's sense of humour - after all, what was the name of the three-headed dog!? And I was a bit dismayed at the potential focus on 'imagination' - but as it turns out, Rowling uses the word in exactly the sense I think to be important.

This speech is utterly spectacular, beautifully written and read, by someone who has earned the credibility to deliver it. What a privilege it is to have all these internets! And it is tuned perfectly to the audience she speaks to. I hope they listened.





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