JK Rowling is due to give the most important speech of the year to thousands of student graduates at the Ivy League Institution at Harvard University. Last years speech was given by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. By US standards Rowling is a self-made billionaire but the news of her speech has met with a less than enthusiastic response from the students of the university. Adam Goldenberg, Canadian student rather bizarrely said of Rowling that "Our commencement speaker tricked parents into letting their kids read books filled with sex, murder, and homosexual role models." The overall feeling of the students is that JK Rowling is not of sufficient standing to give what they class as the most important speech of their lives. Other speakers have included John F Kennedy and Juan Carlos the First.
2 Responses to “JK Rowling to give commencement address at Harvard”
June 7th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
JK Rowling given other than warm reception at elitist Harvard « Mass Media and Contemporary Culture says:
June 7th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Lee says:
I completely agree with your post - snobbery and elitism sums up the attitude of Harvard pretty well. I would have thought that the story of JK Rowling would fit in well with the American dream but obviously not. If she had graduated from Harvard before going on to sell almost half a million books then she would have been treated like a demi god.
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