Juan Lagares
07/10/2020 - 9:00
- Clarín.com
- International
This is not a story about the most famous character of the last decades of contemporary literature and cinema. It is not an essay on what or who inspired the author to bring the entire magical world of Harry Potter to life . Sometimes, the story of the story also has something to tell and in this case, that of JK Rowling's life responds to a cliché that is still valid: what was the route taken by the author who got on the wheel depending on how you turn, you can stop when you are at the top or down to turn again.
Joanne Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 near Bristol, in the south of England. She had a troubled relationship with her parents and since she was little she always made up stories, her first story was about a rabbit. In adolescence, she became a fan of Siouxsie Sioux - head of the legendary post-punk group Siouxsie & The Banshees - from whom she adopted black hair and the marked use of black eyeliner, a look she wore until her college days.
Teachers and students of those days remember her as an introverted and calm girl, always characterized by her jean jacket and black hair. While her classmates had fun at parties, Joanne preferred to lock herself up to read Charles Dickens and JRR Tolkien.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling alongside actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. (AP)
She studied French and classical philology at the university and went to live in London, where she worked as a researcher and secretary for Amnesty International. She studied French and went on to teach - also in English - to earn her first tickets. In this way, she got a job as an English teacher in Porto. There she met her first husband, the journalist Jorge Arantes and soon became pregnant. However, the marriage did not work as expected and after the birth of their daughter Jessica, the relationship ended abruptly just over a year after it began after suffering abuse and violence .
Platform 9 3/4: go through the wall
Joanne Rowling was unemployed, penniless and with a baby to feed. The relationship with her parents was still strained, especially with her mother, who had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis that worsened the condition. Despite the differences, Joanne always showed a lot of love for her mother, but those who know her warn that for the writer it meant a wound that had a scar but will always leave a mark. Her mother died ten years after being diagnosed; Another hard blow for Joanne.
However, while he was waiting on the platform for a train to leave for the Manchester-London tour and visit his parents, he saw a boy in glasses who reminded him of Ian Potter, a childhood friend who shared a neighborhood and for the first time in his mind the image of Harry appeared, the young magician apprentice who would change his life. The training took four hours until she left the station and Joanne continued to mold in her mind the character that had appeared to her. Something similar to what Julio Cortázar once told about the invention of his Cronopios and Famas .
The author of the saga, the British Joanne Rowling.
Rowling finally moved to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, to be close to her sister Diana. It was her worst time. She couldn't get a job and had to take care of her little daughter so her options were reduced. He barely survived on a pension of £ 70 enough to rent a two-room apartment.
At that point she was determined to write a text about the boy who studied magic, but the plot was still not well defined in her head. After the death of his mother, he immersed himself in negative thoughts, as if carrying a cross for never having told him about the story he had created and that generated a light of hope in a gloomy scenario: he was diagnosed with chronic depression and even contemplated suicide , he admitted years later.
JK Rowling and the magic napkins
However, the wheel was beginning to spin. As Jessica could not fall asleep, Joanne went out on the streets of Edinburgh: the rattle in her stroller allowed the girl to sleep and when she did, her mother identified some local coffee to sit down and put her mind to soak . For those who cared for her, she would ask for a coffee or tea and sometimes a pen. And so he began to write the Harry Potter story, on restaurant napkins .
Rowling went through a deep depression while creating the world of Harry Potter. (Reuter)
In those coffee sessions and Jessica's naps, Jo found contentment in her happy memories: most of them guided her to her friends, one of the most important metamessages and fundamental basis of the work she was about to write. Then she thought about school, as a child, with friends, and Hermione Granger was born , Harry's loyal partner. And Ian Potter and his old friend Sean - whom he later defined as "loyal and lovable person" - also came to mind to give life to Ron Weasley, Harry's strongest friendship bond, who is an orphan and welcomed for your friend's family.
Rowling wrote compulsively and as a therapeutic activity, perhaps without knowing it, and magic was created on the napkins. The characters of Albus Dumbledore , Rubeos Hagrid, Voldemort ( "he who must not be named" , who should not be named) Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Dolores Umbridge and Severus Snape , who owes their invention to Professor John Nettleship, followed one another. , one of Rowling's former teachers. Nettleship taught him chemistry at the Wyedean School in Gloucestershire and years later, after leaving a cinema after seeing one of the Harry Potter films, he stated: "I was horrified. I knew he was a strict teacher, but I didn't think he was that bad . "
Alan Rickman as Severus Snape and the chemistry teacher who inspired the character.
In 1995 Rowling had her first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ready. Determined and with an unwavering will, she presented her project in various editorials, but almost always found the same negative answer and that the children's literature did not give the necessary profits to make an investment. For Jo - as her friends and family called her - the company became an obsession and sometimes she had to transcribe the book by hand to present it to another publisher since she did not have the resources to pay for the prints and thus try her luck again. .
After several attempts, he finally found the Bloomsbury publishing house, which agreed to publish the first Harry Potter book and paid him 2,500 pounds, not without first recommending the author to get a stable job since they did not consider that the earnings were sufficient for him to be able to stay together with your daughter. Then Jo returned to teach French and English, although with the certainty that a thousand copies of her first film would be on the street.
In 1997, Bloomsbury published the book and the author donated half of the copies to different libraries. Although her full name is Joanne Rowling, the author added a "K" to her signature because her publisher thought she needed a second initial to have a more attractive name and chose her grandmother's name, Kathleen, to complete the circle.
While teaching - and her success grew silently - Rowling wrote the second book in the Harry Potter series and the Chamber of Secrets, and sparked the interest of the American publisher Scholastic, which retained the rights to market and distribute the book in America. . The author then launched into shaping the third chapter: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Now yes, fame, prestige and money had reached the author who had finally taken a complete turn and this time she was at the top.
Harry Potter books and movies are a worldwide success.
The rest is history. Harry Potter sold 500 million copies and was translated into 63 languages. Her films were also a box office success and Rowling's economy shifted exponentially, becoming - according to Forbes magazine - one of Britain's ten richest women and the first female writer in history to make a profit of more than $ 1 billion. .
Rowling returned to bet on love and married Neil Murray with whom he had two children, David and Mackenzie. Following the publication of the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , he published several books in the same Hogwarts universe, always for charity, such as The Tales of Beedle the Bard . Currently, Rowling has not clarified her literary intentions in the future and enjoys her success by performing numerous charitable events, lectures, and interventions in favor of reading, although she is expected to write a Potterian Encyclopedia and could write two adult novels. JK Rowling assured that he does not intend to write another story like Harry Potter, but publishes content for the Pottermore site . In recent times she was involved in controversy over political statements and for showing an unbearable side to sexual diversity.