House-Elfs and Slavery Again

[reepicheepuk]

No: HPFGUIDX 38284

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "linda_mccabe" <lmccabe at s...> wrote:
> [JKR]can't just 
> leave it as Hermione's SPEW buttons in their fourth year which had 
> little or no impact on anyone.

This is exactly what bugs me here. JKR's description of SPEW is so 
obviously making fun of poor Hermione's efforts that I find it hard 
to match with the very noble ideas connected with her trteatment of 
Mudbloods or the events at the Quidditch World Cup. It is so obvious 
that not only poor brainwashed Winky but also "free" Dobby has not 
even remotely grasped the idea of freedom, and especially the house-
elves at Hogwarts are so blatantly happy with their situation that it 
seems really hard to see them as suppressed underdogs. (Of course, 
remembering >Malcolm X's "house negroes", they may just be happy 
because they don't know any better.) Perhaps the concept of 
some "symbiotic" bond between house elves and wizards is quite a good 
idea after all. The folk tales on which the house elves are evidently 
created usually don't ask complicated questions like these, anyway. 
There are just benevolent spirits attached to certain places or 
families doing their best to help whenever they can. And indeed there 
are some tales where the spirits have to leave when they are offered 
rewards for their services.
Whether this concept is a valuable one from a pedagogical point of 
view, is of course, a very different question. Why not just admit 
that a great writer can also create tless-than-perfect things in her 
world?
Reepicheep