[HPforGrownups] Re: House elves question

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 174644

Mary: 
>I agree with not wanting anyone, whether house elf or Imperioed!  
>wizard, to be a slave, why is it so hard to understand that some beings like to  
>clean and are proud of their work? It doesn't matter whether you are a house  
>elf, muggle, wizard, or Martha Stewart, if you like to make things clean, you  
>like to make things clean. 

Bart:
I wasn't planning on commenting on this issue today, but you have brought up two very important issues. I recall when feminism first came into its own in the early 70's, there was a major pendulum swing (which still has not swung back to the center), where if a woman stayed home to organize the inner part of a married couple's life, and care for children, that she was somehow betraying the feminist movement, and was not achieving her full potential; that working without being paid was somehow below a woman's dignity. 

Now, Occam's Razor suggests that, when we create hypotheses, we choose the ones that are easiest to test as theories first (btw, that is a far more accurate restatement of Occam's Razor than the more common, "The simplest explanation is most likely the best one."). Now, of course, in analyzing literature, the "bad writer" is always the easiest to test hypothesis of any peculiarity in the work. In other words, JKR created house elves out of whole cloth, and didn't really worry about HOW they got the psychology they currently have. Unfortunately, that is also unsatisfying to the reader. But, with no way of digging into the past, the best we can do is work with the present, and extrapolate backwards.

Pretty much all beings with any kind of a brain are motivated primarily by pleasure/pain; our psychologies encourage us to do that which causes pleasure, and avoid that which causes pain. Sentient beings are capable of going further; they are willing to relinquish current pleasure, or even accept pain, in return for greater future pleasure. From what we have seen of house elves, they derive a tremendous amount of pleasure from a job well-done, and even more from appreciation for a job well done. They are bonded with a wizard or wizard family, and appreciation from them creates an even stronger pleasure response. Lack of appreciation is uncomfortable, and displeasure on the part of the wizard(s) with whom they are bonded creates actual pain; the self-punishment is the proverbial dog who eats food so bad that he licks his posterior to get rid of the taste. Being an appreciated slave creates a tremendous amount of pleasure in the house elf, to the level of an addiction; being set free means that the pleasure of being appreciated by a bonded master is no longer possible, which is a horrible thing. The only way I could see an elf WANTING to be free is if his master NEVER shows ANY appreciation; if one considers the house elf slavery to be an addictive behavior, an unappreciative master can actually break the addiction. 

Now, here's where I take a leap. Trying to find a way this could have evolved naturally, I cannot succeed. Therefore, waxing Sherlockian, it makes sense that this did NOT evolve naturally, that house elves are an engineered species rather than a natural one. Which brings up the question, WHICH species were turned into house elves? Was it a non-sentient form of life, who were somehow given sentience, or was it a higher form of life, that was enslaved. I'm really hoping it was the former; that Dobby was evolutionary, not atavistic. 

But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't

Bart