[HPforGrownups] Re: House Elves and justice, etc

[Katherine Coble]

No: HPFGUIDX 129799


On May 31, 2005, at 1:02 PM, a_svirn wrote:

>
>  As for honour or justice – it's simply mockery to apply these terms
>  to slaves. Honour implies superiority both moral and social. Justice
>  implies authority both in terms morality and in terms of power.
>  Slaves are inferior (socially and according to
>  convention "naturally") and subject to their masters' authority.
>
>  a_svirn
>

K:

You're kidding, right?  Really....seriously.  You have to be kidding 
here.
My dictionary gives one definition of honor as:
	a 	Principled uprightness of character; personal integrity.

I believe you may be inferring a different meaning for "honour", which 
is understandable.  It is a many-faceted word.  But personal integrity 
is _not_ something that a slave's position forbids him.

I believe that people can be enslaved by many things--not necessarily 
the code of another.   I believe that the enslavement of house-elves is 
something about which we will learn more in the next 2 books.  However 
I at no point believe that the conditions of enforced servitude under 
which house-elves live need rob them of this honor.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]