House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint LONG

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 180797

> Alla:
> 
> Well, no, that's the point. I do not see how those statements are 
> mutually exclusive since I am not saying that elves likes being 
> slaves. I am saying that elves like serving the wizards even if to 
> us it LOOKS like slavery.
> 
> Oh, and again just for the record since I am an interview person, I 
> DO think that they are supposed to be metaphor for slaves, it is 
> just I think that canon is less than clear on that and I am trying 
> to argue other side. I am not arguing it just for the sake of 
> arguing, I am sort of disregarding interviews for the purpose of 
> this argument.
> 
> So, the elves are not slaves and the elves LIKE to serve the 
wizards 
> to me is by no means mutually exclusive. Am I being slow here? How 
> are they mutually exclusive?

a_svirn:
OK, I see. Can you explain the difference between being owned, being 
someone's property and being a slave, then? Because there is not a 
slightest question in the series from either side that they are being 
owned. 
 
> Alla: 
> But they also LIKE that arrangement as long as they are not abused. 
> In what society is that happening to slaves?

a_svirn:
For one thing it is a separate issue. To say they like being owned is 
to say that they like being slaves. Because being owned means being a 
slave. In any language known to me, at least. For another, it is by 
no means unheard of for a slave to like their lot, providing that 
they like their master. Jim from Hucklberry Finn liked being a slave 
of the Dowager. He even loved her (as his mistress, I mean). He only 
ran away because she had sold him. Uncle Tom didn't mind being a 
slave of the St. Clares. He minded it so little in fact, that his 
name is often used as a byword for servility. And how about Firs from 
the Cherry Orchard? He saw the emancipation of serfs as calamity. 

In any case, their liking of being owned does NOT change the fact 
that they are. Owned. And the fact that being owned means being a 
slave. Honestly, every one the thousand of Solomon's concubines 
perhaps liked to be owned by him. That doesn't change the fact that 
they were concubines. 

a_svirn