[HPforGrownups] Re: Put-Outer/free elves unite

[Laura Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 37064

First a short memo about the put-outer, then on to elves and slavery.

David said (in relation to the "clunkiness" of the word Put-outer):

>It may be cultural.  To my half-English ears, it does not seem 
>clunky.  My son has a little gadget that Lego supply to take apart 
>bricks that are jammed together.  It has no name so we call it the 
>taker-aparter.  I think inventions of that sort are fairly common 
>here.  Washer-upper for example.
>I agree it is of a different type to Pensieve.
>Is that not true in the US?  Can UK people confirm?

*looks impressed* You actually made a word for that little lego tool thing?  Hum.  At my house we just said "You know that..." and accompanied our words with a intricate wrist movement.  Actually, sometimes we didn't say anything at all and just started looking around and making the wrist movement repetitively.  *sighs* Oh well, *we* all knew what we were talking about.

Anyway, I'm American, and at my household we rely more on elaborate hand gestures (this may be due to our Italian heritage, it can get rather hectic when all my extended family gets together -- everyone ends up flailing their arms around in an attempt to be "heard" over everyone else) than anything else to get our point across, but I found no problem with JKR's use of the word "Put-outer".  In fact, I liked it.  It added to the dynamic of the story, IMO.  There you are, reading, and a strange, wizardly-looking man pulls out a silver contraption and points it at a street lamp.  I, for one, was expecting it to be called something elaborate and foreign, and when it ended up being just a "Put-outer" I was quite tickled. *is easily amused, I suppose*  It also tallies with Dumbledore's personality.  You're always expecting him to say or do something dramatic (e.g. after the sorting ceremony of Harry's first year, Dumbledore gets up, looking all impressive and says something along the lines of "Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words, and here they are:  Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak.  Thank you."..do you see what I'm getting at?).  


okay, back to the more serious matter.

Grey Wolf said:
<snip explanation of Atans race>
>This situation reflects my view on the Pottervese elves: they realized 
>that they had too much power (and I do mean too much: they apparate in 
>Hogwarts, need no wand, throw wizards down stairs with thought alone, 
>etc.) and put themselves into slavery because they couldn't stop 
>themselves from killing each other (or iniciating a war with another 
>species). Of course, this is based on a piece of canon we do not have: 
>the origins of the elves's enslavement.
>If you accept this interpretation (as one of the possible origins of 
>the elves's enslavement), then it follows that liberating the elves 
>does not only hurt them psicologically, but could mean their 
>self-destruction.

Yeah, but is perpetual bondage better than death?  I know it's sort of a personal thing, but if I had to choose the fate of myself and any future offspring I might have (and any of their offspring, etc.) I would like to believe I would be brave enough to go with what I believe is right, and choose death.

I also have trouble believing the elven race viewed *itself* as too powerful and therefore put *itself* into bondage.  As all the elves would have been equally powerful (and they don't seem particularly aggressive) they wouldn't have posed a threat to each other.  More likely, the wizard population found them too powerful for their liking and therefore used magic, laws, etc to eventually bond them all as slaves to a certain house/family (I am sure there is some old magic to do this).  Eventually, no one would know it had ever been any different, and elves and wizards alike would view this enslavement as good/normal.  I think laws that are in effect in the WW, such as the law against an elf carrying a wand, are reflections of this.  Somewhere back the wizards were threatened by the elves, so they destroyed that threat.  I also believe such measures are being taken against other magical creatures that wizards deem a threat to their king-of-the-magical-hill status, such as dragons.

tsk. tsk.  Bad wizards.

laura 


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