Harry's remark about Kreacher WAS: Re: JKR messed up........ no.

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 178629

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
> Magpie:
>  It's quite another for me to believe 
> > another woman should correctly be treated as a piece of property 
> > because that's what she believes she should be treated as, which is 
> > what the House Elves are. Yes it's telling us to respect other 
> > peoples' ideas, but it's also telling us to see other people as 
> > potentially biologically made to serve us--of course people find it 
> > confusing.
> 
> Pippin:
> Who are these confused people?
> I haven't heard from anyone who finished the book and thought,
> gosh, what the world needs is  to train/breed a bunch of people to 
> serve us as House Elves. I think canon shows clearly that although
> the idea has attractions, if you could do that, it would be cruel 
> and unwise. 

Montavilla47:
As I've been reading this exchange, I've been asking myself that
question.  And, I think it's fair to say that a lot of children might
end up thinking that it would be cool if there were some 
magical race of elves that served us--just like it would be 
really cool to go to a Wizard school, or if there really were brooms
that might allow us to fly.

Pippin:
> It does show how, once you have such a situation, it isn't easily
> set right, which is all the more reason not to get into it. It
> seems like what you're worried about is people picking up on
> the attractions of having a slave race, but not getting the
> part where it's shown to be cruel, demeaning and just plain 
> weird. IMO,  you would have to be reading very selectively, with
> a pro-slavery agenda already in place, to pick up a message
> like that.  

Montavilla47:
But the parts that are cruel, demeaning, and just plain weird
are shown to be due to masters who are cruel, demeaning, and
just plain weird.

When it's Harry who, after an initial discomfort with slave-owning,
practices good master behavior, the master/slave relationship 
is okay.  Therefore, in order to come away with the message that
slavery is bad, you need to come into the story with that idea.

And say to yourself, "Well, it's all very good that Harry is 
responsible and kind, but we know that isn the way that 
slavery really works."

Montavilla47