Authors That Touch Your Soul

In unit 2, Sound, of Journalism we learned about how radio and voice is used to connect and share with people. We studied different podcasts and learned how to formulate one so that the words flow. By watching Ira Glass videos we saw what it is that makes a good story. For our FE, we went to the Journalism Department of Columbia College, where they do tv and radio broadcasting and write for the school newspaper. For our action project we chose a voice that represents the 20th century, and tell their story, and create a podcast about them. I chose J.K. Rowling because, despite her being an author and not hearing her voice, I fell in love with her and her series. People don’t realize who Rowling really is and I wanted to show them that in the podcast. It was really challenging shortening down some videos I found of her because I thought all of it was so amazing. Though, with some help, I was able to shorten the clips to the best parts and I am very proud of how I told J.K. Rowling’s story. Please enjoy my podcast and transcript below.

 

WHEN	WHO/HOW	WHAT
0:00 0:02 0:17 0:20 0:32 0:58 1:10 1:15 1:17 1:35 1:50 1:52 2:09 2:26 2:47 3:10 3:29 3:45 3:51 4:05 4:08 4:26 4:57 5:10	TS    Background Music Starts (“Hedwing’s Theme” by John Williams) J.K. Rowling Music Fades Out J.K. Rowling TS SV as Krystal Sim Background Music (“Dumbledore’s Army” by Nicholas Hooper) Lily Potter TS Music Fades Out SV as CathrynWaller MN TS Sai as Cassandra J J.K. Rowling TS J.K. Rowling Background Music (“Harry and Hermione” by Nicholas Hooper) SV as Charlotte Howle Music Fades Out J.K. Rowling TS J.K. Rowling THE END	From GCE Chicago High School, this is TS. I’d like to talk about J.K. Rowling, a famous and influential author. My parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a  mortgage or secure a pension. I would like to make it clear that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. They had been poor themselves and I have since been poor. Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself. When Rowling was six months into creating the first book of Harry Potter her mother had passed away. This influenced Harry’s relationship with his mother; her becoming his refuge during times of real stress. I remember staying up to read it through the night and ending up in floods of tears as Lily Potter said to Harry: “You’ve been so brave.” Those are the kind of words you long to hear when you’ve lost a parent. These stories hit you where you live sometimes, in the most beautiful way. You’ve been so brave. Rowling started suffering from clinical depression after her mother died. She felt cold and numb during this time, like she would never be happy again, this later inspired her idea of dementors. When I was 9 my best friend died. I was depressed for the next two years, but this summer I started reading and watching the Harry Potter series. I found out Harry’s tragic story and I learned that love will get you through anything and that there will always be someone for you, In a book or in real life. J.K. Rowling’s books are what inspired me to fall in love with reading and what made me want to become a writer. Because I wanted to have people to talk to about all of the books I loved I found an online community, and I have become friends with people all over the globe that I never would’ve met otherwise. People all over the world know and love the characters from the Harry Potter series. These characters have helped to empower and bring together communities like never before. Her story as well as her series is well known, and she shows people that success can only be achieved through repeated failure. I wrote a paper on Jo for my English class, the subject being ‘people that inspire us the most’. My English teacher didn’t like it that much, which really frustrated me, because I worked very hard on it, but I kept trying, and I didn’t let it discourage me because I knew it’s what Jo would want me to do. I mean look at her, she was put down by, what was it, 9 publishers? But did that stop her? No! A mere seven years after my graduation day I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short lived marriage had imploded and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless. Rowling’s success did not come immediately. She had to work hard and persevere in order to even be published. She points out how we worry about failure, but without it we cannot continue to fight to bigger, better, things. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not lived at all. In which case you fail by default. My therapist told me to think of a person who was non-judgmental and imagine what they would say to me when I was feeling particularly down on myself or anxious. “I thought of Luna Lovegood. She saved my life, without a doubt. I always think of her when I’m down and no matter what, she brings a smile to my face and makes me realize that it’s OK not to be perfect, as long as I’m myself. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. I was set free because my greatest fear was realized and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old type writer, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. Authors motivate people to continue living the life they want to live. J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter gave people a chance to see that no matter where you come from you can do amazing things. We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.