COS Chapter Eight: "The Deathday Party"
Oct. 29th, 2010 06:00 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslock* Everyone’s got such a hate-on for Percy that he’s described using negative imagery even when he’s doing something nice. Here he’s “bullying” Ginny into taking some potion for her cold.
* Knowing what will happen in GOF, everybody’s probably going to blame him for thinking that Ginny’s a little bit ill, rather than realising that she was just being possessed by a Horcrux-ified diary which once belonged to a dark wizard who’s been dead for eleven years. Christ, Percy, are you blind or something?
* Although in retrospect it’s obvious that Ginny’s just too awesome to suffer from such petty ailments as the common cold, so maybe he should have noticed.
* Oh no wait, she hasn’t yet become MarySue!Ginny, so she might still suffer illness like the rest of us mere mortals.
* Obviously Harry’s going to be drenched to the skin, but why’s he splattered with mud? The whole point of Quidditch is that they players fly a long way above the ground, so they wouldn’t have much opportunity to get muddy. Unless Harry fell off a lot… Wait, did I just implicitly diss Harry’s SuperQuidditch!Skillz? Ignore that.
* In the last chapter, everybody acted as if Slytherin spying on Gryffindor’s try-outs was a dirty, underhanded thing to do. Fred and George have been spying on Slytherin. Slytherin, as far as we know, never actually spied on Gryffindor (or, indeed, anyone). IOIAGDI, obviously.
* I highly doubt that the Nimbus 2001 is so good as to make all other brooms obsolete.
* Nearly-headless Nick died in 1492, but the clothes he’s wearing seem more Elizabethan in style, i.e., about a century later. Perhaps there’s a ghost clothes shop where spirits can keep up-to-date with the latest fashions, but NHN just likes Elizabethan fashions so much that he stopped going after around 1600.
* Of course, this sort of fanwank wouldn’t be necessary if JKR had actually bothered to think about her setting, and either gave Nick more period-appropriate clothing or made this his four hundredth deathday instead.
* If the purpose of the Headless Hunt is to play ball games with members’ own heads, excluding members who aren’t fully decapitated seems quite reasonable to me.
* Once again, JKR, trying to enforce rules ≠ “endless battle against students”.
* Filch has been cleaning all morning when any of the teachers (and probably quite a few of the pupils) could have done it in an instant with a quick “Scourgify!” No wonder he’s in a bad mood, really.
* Although I do wonder why Dumbledore hired him as caretaker. Perhaps he just enjoys watching him being humiliated.
* So what is this mysterious power that connects Filch and Mrs. Norris? Does the fact that Filch is a Squib rule out magic, or does being a Squib just mean that he can’t do wand magic, but can still be magically connected to his pets?
* Is it wrong that I’ve always totally rooted for Filch against Fred and George?
* By making Filch’s eagerness to hang pupils by their ankles “common knowledge”, i.e., unsubstantiated rumour, Rowling handily manages to turn us against him whilst avoiding having to provide any evidence to back this up.
* I can’t help but wonder why Dumbles keeps Peeves around. Possibly it’s so that he can handily distract Filch when Our Hero is in trouble. Or maybe blackmail’s involved. “Don’t forget, Twinkles, I’ve got your old love-letters from Gellert Grindlewald. So if you even think about getting rid of me…”
* Harry apparently has no qualms about looking through other people’s correspondence. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!
* One of these days I’m going to write a fic where Harry suffers karmic revenge for being such a jerk. So his schooldays will be made a misery by people reading his private letters, hexing rude words across his face, beating him at Quidditch by buying superior brooms which make every match a foregone conclusion…
* Nice to see that wizards have picked up on the irritating Muggle habit of deliberately misspelling words in their brand names.
* Any guesses on how exactly a warlock differs from a regular wizard?
* Harry put the envelope down two feet away from where it was. D’oh!
* Filch is obviously ashamed of being a Squib, suggesting that they suffer from prejudice from fellow wizards, unlike Muggleborns. “Mudblood” is still a worse insult than “Sneakin’ Squib,” though.
* NHN is prepared to destroy a priceless antique in order to get Harry out of detention. Good to see he’s got his priorities straight.
* NHN seems like a bit of a joke, to be honest. About the only time we see him interacting with Gryffindor students is when they needle him at the feast; the rest of the time, they just seem to ignore him.
* I bet the Slytherins treat their ghost better. They probably hold a big party in their common room every time it’s the Bloody Baron’s deathday, with music, dancing, and various wizarding party games. The highlight of the night is a play (written by and starring Draco Malfoy, of course) about the Baron’s death. It’s absolutely excellent. :)
* Off on a bit of a tangent here, but isn’t the Baron supposed to have been contemporaneous with the Hogwarts Founders? Which would mean that he lived sometime during the Anglo-Saxon period, which would mean that he couldn’t be a baron, as the rank was introduced by the Normans, who didn’t control England until 1066…
* F&G are feeding a firework to a salamander, continuing the long tradition of cruelty to animals in the series.
* “‘A promise is a promise,’ Hermione reminded Harry bossily.” Because only bossy kill-joys care about such things as keeping your promises. Most normal people are fine with the idea of just breaking them whenever you feel like it.
* Apparently when their bodies died, the ghosts’ musical taste died too.
* Rather careless (some might say rude) of Nick to invite three living people along and then not bother to provide them with any food.
* Rotting food might have a stronger flavour than normal food. Unfortunately, it’s also a not very nice flavour.
* So, the good guys can’t stand Myrtle and make fun of her behind her back; the evil Slytherin Draco Malfoy, OTOH, is able to get past her unpleasant exterior and make friends with her. I’ll just chalk that up as #147 on the “Instances when the bad guys actually seem better than the good guys” board.
* Rather rude of Sir Patrick to interrupt Nick’s speech like that. Makes you wonder why exactly Nick invited him.
* Or why he’s so keen to join the Hunt, for that matter.
* “Time to kill… I smell blood… I SMELL BLOOD”? Do basilisks always speak in such a melodramatic way, or is it just putting it on to amuse Harry? Or did it just pick up the Slytherin theatrical habit from Salazar or Tom?
* Given that all the students are coming up from the same place, why exactly are they coming in from different ends of the corridor?
* I know that people often think of Draco as a bit of a drama queen, but pushing to the front of the crowds and shouting “You’ll be next, Mudbloods!” seems ridiculously over-the-top (not to mention rather stupid), even for him. I literally cannot imagine what his motivation for doing this is meant to be.
* Actually, I think Olivander shows us a spell in GOF to make wine fly out of their wands. Maybe Draco’s just discovered this, and currently drunk off his arse.
* Or maybe Rowling just hooked his testicles up to car batteries and turned up the voltage until he agreed to be one of the book’s red herrings.
* Come to think of it, a lot of the plot/characterisation in the series would make a good deal more sense if we assume that that’s what happened. “Look, Sirius, I don’t care if you’re smart enough to figure a way of staying sane despite being surrounded for twelve years by an army of depression-inducing monsters, before masterminding an escape from an impregnable island fortress and evading the biggest man-hunt in recent wizarding history for almost a year, I need you to be really reckless and immature in this book so that you can get killed at the end and make Harry feel miserable. Quick, Dobby, get the car batteries!”
* Hey, maybe that could be a new acronym, for any time when someone does something inexplicable or otherwise out of character: QGCB (for “Quick, get the car batteries!”).
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 02:12 am (UTC)Don't house elves do the laundry to? For some reason I'm remembering they do that but I have no idea why I'm thinking laundry.
I think I remember something about Hermione hiding those knitted things for them but it escapes me where she was putting them and for whatever reason I'm connecting the cleaning of clothing and bedsheets with that endevor.
I don't quite understand the need for Filch if House-elves are living at hogwarts 24-7.
If Filch was directing the house-elves in what tasks they needed to do, etc. Then maybe it would make more sense but I don't know if he's doing that. It would sort of make sense if someone was directing the elves on who did what, etc. etc. etc.
Filch also seems to be in charge of the disciplinary duties or detentions or at the least he keeps up with who got detenting or who broken rules when and for what reason cause I remember I think it was HBP where Snape had harry re-copy those disciplinary cards that had James and Sirius on them.
Why the hell they keep those cards so long I have no clue. I remember Snape or at least it was said that they were faded but also nibbled or chewed by mice.
Now, comeon...this is a magical castle, you mean to tell me magical people haven't figured out how to keep mice out of the castle? (Ah well, with Peeves running around I guess not). Or hell at the very least, magically enchant the cards so they don't fade or get nibbled.
Still not only is Filch having to clean, it just seems odd as to why Filch is in charge of these cards. It sounds like this should be something more handled by a school office, not a care taker.
I'm assuming because they keep these cards for a very long time over many, many ears, do they write down Every single thing a person gets detention for? If so then Professors must also be writing down detentions they give. If so then do the Professors turn these cards over to Filch at the end of the day or week?
Still, McGonagall is Headmistress and seems to be in charge of the sort of, secretary work you would think she instead of Filch would be handling the record keeping for the school.
Most muggle schools have staff for the office and for whatever reason I just dont' see Filch as being the school guidance counciler or record keeper. It just seems an odd cobination of duties. You don't usually see the janitor of a school who is handling misbehaving students...or at least in my experience with school those two jobs were handled by two different people entirely.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 02:25 am (UTC)2) Hermione was hiding the knitted hats in the rubbish in the Gryffindor common room. Ron was uncovering them so the elves would have a choice about whether to pick them up. The elves were offended by the idea and refused to clean Gryffindor Tower, so Dobby did the whole tower on his own and wore all the hats.
Most muggle schools have staff for the office and for whatever reason I just dont' see Filch as being the school guidance counciler or record keeper. It just seems an odd cobination of duties. You don't usually see the janitor of a school who is handling misbehaving students...or at least in my experience with school those two jobs were handled by two different people entirely.
In my school a common punishment was to have to arrive at school at 6:30 am, sometimes combined with some duty such as searching the school for suspicious objects (if there was nobody doing this as punishment students took turns with this activity) or some cleaning or gardening tasks. These students were usually supervised by the janitor.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 12:22 pm (UTC)No, I never thought them cleaning the clothing did set them free. I just couldn't remember exactly and was wondering that they also did the laundry. So that is another cleaning task that doesn't really fall to Filch, it is the house elves that are doing it.
In my school a common punishment was to have to arrive at school at 6:30 am, sometimes combined with some duty such as searching the school for suspicious objects (if there was nobody doing this as punishment students took turns with this activity) or some cleaning or gardening tasks. These students were usually supervised by the janitor.
I never had detention in the existance of my school life. I had friends who had it, but I never had to suffer that fate. The most I remember from what it was is sitting in a room with everyone else that had gotten detention.
As far as I can remember it usually meant you had to stay longer after school and there were no school janitors involved that I know of when kids were given detention. I have no clue what the county school system does now, I've been out of school for quite a while so it's not something I'm thinking about on a daily basis anymore. I doubt it has much chanced thought. I'll have to ask my aunt next I see her as she works in the school system here in my area.
As you point out in your school the janitors supervise but still there is a difference.
I'm more thinking about the clerical work as far as these cards we see in Hogwarts and that Filch seems to have the same privilage as Professors in that he can disciplin the kids in the same way they do. Not sure if he can take points away, I don't remember that happening.
It just seems more of a task for the school office is what I'm getting at.
My aunt during my high school years was the head secretary. In the office there was her, and I think another lady under her, then there was the guidance council office which had about 3 or 4 people, then there was the financial lady who handled all the bills/money.
Obviously the principle and vice principle.
I think now that I'm thinking about it the vice principle might have been the one who dealt with the disciplinary stuff along with the guidance council office.
But again, all this was many years ago, however I surely don't remember where the janitors ever took charge of giving kids detention, etc. If it ever happened I'm pretty sure it was a teacher or someone else who was in control of it.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 08:13 pm (UTC)That was how it was done in my day, also.
The school day ended at 2:15; those who had detention then had to report to the designated "detention room" by 2:30, and were kept for an hour. They could work on homework if they had any, else they just had to sit quietly the whole time, and it was monitored by a teacher, not a janitor.
Actually there was a certain cache' to getting detention in my school, so I don't know how effective it really was as a disciplinary measure.
I think now that I'm thinking about it the vice principle might have been the one who dealt with the disciplinary stuff along with the guidance council office.
In my school the vice principal was the one who oversaw disciplinary matters (including the hall guards, who were egotistical Gryffindor-types), but he never monitored Detention unless the teacher designated to do so was for some reason unable to do it.
In my school there was also a certain cache' to hanging out with the school janitor, so detention with the janitor wouldn't have been a particularly effective deterrent, either... LOL
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 10:28 am (UTC)The VPs took care of discipline at our schools, too. One school even had a boys' VP and a girls' VP. The students who thought detention was great were probably Gryffindors, too, I'm thinking, though the "sash gang" - one school's monitors wore sashes - seem ideal Gryffs.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 07:05 pm (UTC)Two separate groups in my school; the guys who hung with the janitor were ususally detention regulars, helping out the janitor was like an extension of shop class for them. Plus they had a legitimate excuse to skip study halls.
The A/V kids were more equivalent to Ravenclaw in my school; intelligent guys who liked technology. By the next generation I guess they'd be labeled "geeks", but in my day they actually were respected and looked-up to, if only because they to had an excuse to get out of study halls! LOL
One school even had a boys' VP and a girls' VP.
We sort of had that; the actual Vice Principal was a man, so he was not only in charge of Detention, but was designated the "boys' principal".
Then there was a woman who was Assistant Vice Principal, and she was designated the "girls' principal".
Then there was the actual principal of the school, but he was a sweet teddy bear who was deaf in one ear and who seemed to think that all young people were basically good, so needless to say kids could run circles around him, hence the two others being designated as the disciplinarians.
The students who thought detention was great were probably Gryffindors, too, I'm thinking, though the "sash gang" - one school's monitors wore sashes - seem ideal Gryffs.
Our hall monitors were definitely uber-Gryffindors.
Our "detention regulars" probably could have evenly placed in Gryffindor and Slytherin -- and any Hufflepuff who was put up to break the rules by Gryffs or Slyths! LOL
no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 10:32 am (UTC)Me neither! *high fives* Well, except class detentions, but those don't count. Although one day when my mother was supervising detention and it was cold and rainy outside, I decided to turn up just to find a nice warm classroom to read and to see what the whole experience was like. It was pretty funny 'coz everyone was astonished to see me there, hee.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 04:51 pm (UTC)I never got any sort of detention, which was quite a trick, considering how subversive my friends and I were! We just knew how not to get caught! LOL
Closest I came was in my junior year, when the Vietnam Moratorium was nearing and a friend and I (with the assistance of one of our English teachers, no less!), blanketed the school with flyers/posters one afternoon after school calling for the school to close on the day of the Moratorium, and for students to stay at home on that day.
Now we'd plastered the walls of the hallway where the Detention room was, and there was a gang of kids waiting for their friends to get out of Detention who had to have seen Judy and me hanging the flyers and posters.
As luck would have it, after Judy and I had finished we had to walk by the main office to get to the door where her mother (who also knew what we were doing) was waiting to give us a ride home. And as we're passing the office -- upon which doors we'd slapped a couple of flyers -- the Vice Principal comes out, grabs one of the flyers off the door and reads it as he turns from pink to bright red to purple.
He then glanced at Judy and me as we innocently walked by, and you could see the gears going in his brain saying, "Nah! Not them!"
He then spies the kids up the hall who are waiting for their friends to get out of Detention, and bellows: "WHO DID THIS! WHO HUNG THESE UP????"
Like I said, those kids had to have seen Judy and me hanging them up, but they just shrugged their shoulders and mumbled, "We don't know!"
I don't think that they were particularly political, but they probably liked the idea of skipping school on Moratorium Day, and so didn't out us! LOL
no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 11:27 pm (UTC)(I remember when we skipped school to protest at an anti-war rally and our teachers were so annoyed with us- and when our home-room teacher saw me signing out as well, she was in total disbelief, 'You as well?' *sighs*)
Also, I love that your good reputations helped eliminate you from suspicion, hee, that's happened with me as well. I was a teacher's pet, which meant that whenever I did get up to mischief, they never suspected me- and even when kids tried to blame me, they wouldn't believe it! >:D
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 12:23 am (UTC)Well that was the year that there was almost a staff riot -- it started with the school's literary magazine which came out twice a year, and of course was done under the auspices of the English Department.
Well, the first issue of the year had a story about boys in Study Hall, where one has an assignment to write about Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. The others respond with, "Hail! Silly Assy!". The first boy then tells the others that their socks are full of shit.
Hey, I'd be the first to agree that it was not high literature, unless you define "high" in the drug sense! LOL
Now the English teachers were willing to have the story printed as written; the problem was that while the magazine was put together and "published" under the auspices of the English Department, the hardcopies were turned over to the Business Department to have the Typing teachers have their best students type it up on dictograph sheets.
And the Business Department refused to take part in publishing such "filth"; it ended up polarizing the staff, the "fine arts" subjects -- English, Music, Art -- against the more conservative Business, Science, Math, and Vo-tech departments. It grew from an argument about the Constitutional right to free speech, to taking sides on the Vietnam War...
BTW, I took business classes; I had 3 and a half years of typing. My typing teacher liked me. She never questioned that my friend Judy (who was on the staff of the Literary magazine) and I were coming into the typing room on study halls, and quite a few afternoons after school, to work on anything except homework assignments! LOL
(I remember when we skipped school to protest at an anti-war rally and our teachers were so annoyed with us- and when our home-room teacher saw me signing out as well, she was in total disbelief, 'You as well?' *sighs*)
What our school ended up doing -- and in hindsight, and as an adult, I can see the value of their decision -- was to remain open on Moratorium Day, but to have an assembly in the school auditorium in the morning where various issues of the war were discussed.
We then had a full day of school, albeit with shortened classes due to the morning's assembly, and all the teachers were instructed to devote their classes to discussing the war.
So no day off on Moratorium Day -- but when the Black Panther trials came to nearby New Haven later that year, the school just looked the other way when a good many students called in sick so they could join the rally on the New Haven Green (no, I did not attend myself because I expected a riot and I was a coward) :-(
Also, I love that your good reputations helped eliminate you from suspicion, hee, that's happened with me as well. I was a teacher's pet, which meant that whenever I did get up to mischief, they never suspected me- and even when kids tried to blame me, they wouldn't believe it! >:D
Well, when my school opened 10 years previouly, it decided on an English Bulldog for its mascot.
My mother was the town's dog warden, and she and my father bred English Bulldogs, so naturally the Board of Ed asked my parents if they would use one of our dogs as the mascot.
So my sister and I ended up being the official "Mascot Walkers" at all the sporting events, pep rallies, and a good many school dances.
By the time I was in my junior year in the school, the mascot days were long gone. But Mr. Dunbar, the strict Vice Principal, couldn't look at me and not see the sweet little 6 y.o. in a mini cheerleader outfit and white bunnyfur headmuff of a decade earlier.
Hence, in his mind, I could do no wrong! ROFLMAO!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 12:43 pm (UTC)Can I just say I really like Ron for thwarting Hermione's campaign there? He shows much more concern for their feelings and autonomy than Hermione does. Unilaterally deciding she knows what's best and using sly, underhanded tactics to force them down a path they don't want is really horrible of her. It's like 'oh, they're free, mission accomplished!' and she doesn't take into consideration that maybe they were happy with the family they were serving (not all house-elves are miserable with their families like Dobby was) or what they're going to do to survive once they're free.
a common punishment was to have to arrive at school at 6:30 am, sometimes combined with some duty such as searching the school for suspicious objects
Oh, what do you class as 'suspicous' objects? O.o
Our school had students pick up rubbish from the grounds on Friday after school, if they were in trouble, otherwise, they just served detention during lunch-time.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 02:14 pm (UTC)This was in Israel. Anything that might be a bomb in disguise. Anything even slightly odd or out of place. Not a very useful working definition, but what can one do?
no subject
Date: 2010-11-03 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-03 01:29 am (UTC)whitewizard masters.I can't help but read the house elves as being either magically compelled or otherwise brainwashed (perhaps by the way they're raised- no one ever gives them the idea that they have rights or the ability to choose anything in life for themselves). Forcing them to be free against their wills isn't exactly ethical, but how can one respect the wills of people who have no free will?
House elves have no protection under the law and no concept of being anything other than slaves, or, at best with Dobby, poorly paid servants. Their masters can abuse them however they like and no one will care. This is not a case of people who have freely chosen to serve their families, and that Rowling wrote them this way honestly disgusts me.
In book four Hermione starts up an organization for the promotion of house elf rights, tries to raise awareness among the students, tries to talk to the elves, hopes that Dobby's example will help them begin to consider their situations from a new angle, and talks to various adults. With the exception of Dobby, every single person shoots her down and says that the elves are happy being slaves. That there's nothing wrong with their masters having the ability to abuse them, and that it's cruel to try to free them and offer them basic rights.
To bring a rather warped real life example into this... If slaves in the United States had been so battered that they hadn't even wanted to become free, would that somehow have made their emancipation wrong?
There is something very wrong with a series which tries to present slavery as a good thing. I write original fiction set in ancient societies and tend to portray it in a more neutral light, since those societies typically have no movement for abolition- for them slavery is an economic and social/political reality. That's a far cry from trying to portray it as moral.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-03 06:28 am (UTC)If slaves in the United States had been so battered that they hadn't even wanted to become free, would that somehow have made their emancipation wrong?
If all house-elves were regularly downtrodden and beaten, I think it's safe to say it's a terrible practice, but Winky went from being a happy house-elf to a miserable, alcoholic house-elf with frequent crying jags. And none of the Hogwarts house-elves would be abused by any of the teachers there, so for her to want to sneakily 'free' them so that they could be lost and without a home, it's just cruel, I think. I have a hard time believing any of the Hogwarts staff would abuse house-elves, so obviously they're happy to be serving the school and they're not being battered into believing that it's a good thing.
Anyway, that's me speaking from the pov that Hermione and Harry eventually adopt by the end of the series- Harry has no problem with Kreacher as his own personal slave because 'a happy house-elf is okay'. So I'm going to assume that JKR intended all along for the house-elves to not really be an example of institutionalized abuse, otherwise for her heroes to blithely accept it and participate in it would be sending totally the wrong message, no? It's just a case of JKR using serious issues from our society to make her world seem more sophisticated and her writing more insightful when she really has nothing of value to contribute on that topic.
However, if we assume JKR just lost her way and her integrity and really, she totally meant all along to show that slavery was wrong and the house-elves really are abused and crave freedom and all that, then I still think Hermione went about it the wrong way. She should've educated them first, gotten them to realize they deserve better, that they're been taken advantage of and shouldn't stand for it, get them fervent about liberating themselves and then helping them do it once they're committed.
She had good intentions, but being sly and conniving about it just further rubs it in that they're apparently these primitive beings with low intellects who can't be trusted to know what's good for them, so clever Hermione will sort it out for them, even if it's against their will.
Anyway, I do see your point, and I do agree to some extent, but...it's a really complicated issue, I think, and the way JKR just squashed its complexities and dismissed it does it no favors. Because the way it ends suggests she never meant for it to be this big thing about civil liberties and equal rights and everything, so I'm backtracking from that to assume that she created these beings who are genuinely happy to serve people and derive great pleasure in helping out.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-03 09:52 am (UTC)I have issues with many of Hermione's actions over the course of the series, but a fifteen year old girl becoming desperate in her attempts to do something about this issue while no one else will even listen... I can sympathise with that. Her methods weren't the best, but did she really see anything else available to her at that point?
I hear your point and I totally accept that slavery is wrong, btw, but for Hermione to impose her own beliefs upon a different species is also wrong. What she finds abhorrent may be totally acceptable by that species, and it's arrogant of her to assume she knows best.
'Slavery is wrong' is rather different to more gray areas of cultural differences. When such basic rights as freedom are denied people, I think that's when respect for cultural differences breaks down. Or to quote a series called the Sacrifices Arc: 'everyone has a right to freedom which doesn't trample on the freedom of others.'
Or...
I think it's disrespectful to try to force Muslim women to stop covering their hair, but... When the ideals of female modesty are taken to such extremes that men beat and even kill women for 'immoral behavior', then that's something which should be stopped.
Respecting cultural differences =/= ignoring basic human rights. And the implication that it does equal that because the house elves aren't human...
Squick.
After all, Rowling can just say that slavery is in their nature, they're born that way... Squick again.
So I'm going to assume that JKR intended all along for the house-elves to not really be an example of institutionalized abuse, otherwise for her heroes to blithely accept it and participate in it would be sending totally the wrong message, no?
Rowling sending the wrong message? Erm...hardly new for her. And it is made clear in the series that house elves are not protected under the law, and no one even seems particularly bothered by, say, Dobby being mistreated or Winky being wrongly (as they saw it) dismissed. Even if the house elves are slaves by nature, this is a problem in the wizarding world, and it needs to be addressed.
And that house elves are so panicky at the very suggestion or word of freedom, literally terrified, does not lead me to believe that they've chosen this. I re-read the 'House Elf Liberation Front' chapter in GoF, and they're described as panicky, not simply insulted. I have actually read a series with a magical race of servants which did not bother me. It depicted brownies who had an agreement with a family- for them, it was an exchange for one of the family members helping them long ago. They liked keeping the house clean and making the food, but they stood up for themselves. If the humans tried to mess with them, they retaliated. They weren't abused and had the ability to stand up for themselves, which is a very different story to the house elves in HP.
Winky falls apart and is depressed because she has no master, even though she's still doing exactly the same work that any house elf does. That the house elves desire not just tasks like house-work as their professions but slavery itself is... Well, the fault lies with Rowling's world-building, but the whole concept is very skeevy.
In the end, though, it's just so disturbing that the house elves are a species who exist to be slaves. The moral message of a series on that topic being that slavery is good as long as the slaves are treated well... No. Just no.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-03 12:29 pm (UTC)Lol, IKR? *shakes head*
The difference, for me personally, is that with things like bullying, with Muggle oppression by wizards, all that is with human beings in common. So I can make statements condemning it and feel justified.
The problem with house-elves is that this is a species JKR created. And if she is having her heroes buy into the concept that as long as house-elves are happy, it isn't slavery...and putting the suggestion into the series that they live to serve, that it's fulfilling for them to do so, then I just...I don't know. It's so confusing, IDEK what message she's trying to send. But because it's a magical race she created and made them so subservient and pleased to serve humans, I have a harder time saying it's wrong than I do with, say, the Marauders' treatment of Snape.
Basically, I kind of agree with you, I kind of don't, but at the end of the day, the fault lies entirely with her world-building. I think she possibly had intended to do a more sophisticated and hardhitting story arc with that, but then wimped out and flattened it entirely and just shrugged and handwaved it away because she couldn't be bothered.
Slavery in the Wizarding World
Date: 2010-11-03 06:41 pm (UTC)The issue isn't whether Elves have an inate nature to serve others; the issue is that the Wizarding World has enacted laws making it impossible for Elves to autonomously make decisions for themselves regarding their own lives.
Elves may be ecstatic to be servants to humans, but they're not given the choice of who to work for, or the ability to express their service in other ways other than as house-servants.
Elves aren't allowed to be entrepeneurs; an elf can't start their own housecleaning/maid service. An elf can't become a chef and open his or her own restaurant, employing other elves as wait staff. An elf can't open a chain of laundromats/dry cleaners. An elf can't start his or her own landscaping business. An elf can't become a self-employed seamstress/tailor. Elves can't be self-employed nannies. Elves can't run their own candle-making factories.
Elves aren't even allowed to get an education, which further limits their ability to even dream about another type of life, let alone have the opportunity to pursue it.
Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Slavery in the Wizarding World
Date: 2010-11-03 05:34 pm (UTC)It is sending the wrong message, YES!
Saying that since the majority of House Elves are well-taken care of that therefore makes them being SLAVES perfectly alright is like saying that since the majority of slaves in the U.S. were treated well by their owners justified the institution of slavery.
I don't care if a House Elf isn't beaten, has a nice bed to sleep in and gets 3 square meals a day -- they are still SLAVES, they are not free to leave or make any meaningful choices regarding their own lives and how they will live
the way JKR just squashed its complexities and dismissed it does it no favors. Because the way it ends suggests she never meant for it to be this big thing about civil liberties and equal rights and everything, so I'm backtracking from that to assume that she created these beings who are genuinely happy to serve people and derive great pleasure in helping out.
Yes, Rowling has a problem adequately handling any deep, complex, and especially emotional issue, including the issue of slavery in the wizarding world.
The Elves were enslaved back in the 1700s when the Wizarding World imposed rules regarding all nonhuman magikal creatures, so how did the Elves managed to survive and thrive and have their own society before then?
Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
Date: 2010-11-03 11:13 pm (UTC)Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
Date: 2010-11-04 01:29 am (UTC)When I read the books, the way Rowling handled this whole Elf slavery thing, especially the character of Winky, reminded me of the character of the slave Prissy in the movie "Gone With The Wind", played by Butterfly McQueen.
Especially the part when the Union Army is nearby, Prissy runs in to her mistress Scarlet O'Hara, screaming in terror, "Miz Scarlet! Miz Scarlet! De YANKEES is comin'! De YANKEES is comin'!"
Of course the arrival of the Union Army ("Yankees") would result in Prissy being emancipated. She would no longer be a slave.
But instead she's terrified; she can't even formulate in her mind what the concept of freedom means. At most, she knows that Miz Scarlet would no longer "take care of her".
So instead of ecstatically rushing out to greet her liberators, and getting the 40 acres and a mule promised to freed slaves, she instead flees from them in terror, joining her slave owning mistress on a treacherous journey back to the mistress's home plantation where she then endures starvation, and even tho said mistress is not adverse to smacking her around.
Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
Date: 2010-11-04 04:36 am (UTC)And yes, I don't understand how JKR could not understand how disturbing the whole situation is with the house elves either. You and the others have already stated why it is so wrong, so I think that any comment that I might add to that would be redundant.
I don't think we can use JKR's cultural background as an excuse. The U.S. may have a long and bitter history of slavery, but so does Britain. Britain may have abolished slavery earlier than we did, but they still had slaves at one time. Not to mention an entire empire that was based on the subjugation of non-white peoples. So, I really don't know how JKR could have missed the implications.
Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Re: Slavery in the Wizarding World
From:Non-abusive owners
From:no subject
Date: 2010-11-01 01:48 pm (UTC)Basically, he's desperate to be near magic and Hogwarts is probably the only place where having no magic could be worked around without destroying a budget.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 10:23 am (UTC)