What is Rowling trying to do with the House Elf plot?
I think we're here seeing an example of how Rowling is perched right on the border between a preachy, didactic bitch and a good artist. If she was entirely the latter, her world and her characters would function in an organic, internally logical way, and we wouldn't have to wonder just what the heck she was getting at. If she was entirely the latter, everything she wrote would be intended to hammer home her agenda, and while that would be very annoying, we would again not have to wonder what the heck she was getting at.
However, as she is just on the edge between the two, she does things like having Winky and the Hogwarts house elves act in a way that's more or less realistic given the conceit of this species - they accept the current situation as normal and natural, and are very suspicious of anyone trying to change it - while at the same time having Dobby be an anomaly for no apparent reason and having Hermione completely disregard the testimony of her own senses, because that fits her beliefs.
It's a sad fact that those of JKR's characters that act the most human are (at least in my opinion) usually the ones she's not paying all that much attention to. When she starts thinking about a character, she starts ignoring her instincts - and her instincts are one heck of a lot better than her thinking.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 09:25 pm (UTC)I think we're here seeing an example of how Rowling is perched right on the border between a preachy, didactic bitch and a good artist. If she was entirely the latter, her world and her characters would function in an organic, internally logical way, and we wouldn't have to wonder just what the heck she was getting at. If she was entirely the latter, everything she wrote would be intended to hammer home her agenda, and while that would be very annoying, we would again not have to wonder what the heck she was getting at.
However, as she is just on the edge between the two, she does things like having Winky and the Hogwarts house elves act in a way that's more or less realistic given the conceit of this species - they accept the current situation as normal and natural, and are very suspicious of anyone trying to change it - while at the same time having Dobby be an anomaly for no apparent reason and having Hermione completely disregard the testimony of her own senses, because that fits her beliefs.
It's a sad fact that those of JKR's characters that act the most human are (at least in my opinion) usually the ones she's not paying all that much attention to. When she starts thinking about a character, she starts ignoring her instincts - and her instincts are one heck of a lot better than her thinking.