House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 180945

> > Alla:
> > I am not inclined to debate whether elves like it enough to be
> > difference or not, but Here is one IMO huge difference that
> > Goddlefrood pointed out - real life slaves are traded, elves are
> > not. So here is a distinction between RL slavery right there,
> > staring at us.
>
> Shelley:
> I have a problem with the idea that House Elves are not traded, or
with the
> idea that they are not sold. We are told directly that only wealthy
families
> own them, and that right tells me that the original house elf
slaves might
> have been bought somehow, and that their price must be high.
Otherwise,
> wouldn't poor families get them too? Wouldn't the children of House
Elves
> seek out new families to serve if they were not bound to a master
in true
> slavery? Why only the rich get to have them? Unless, of course,
it's the
> house elf choice to choose the largest mansions to clean, or chose
only the
> most well known and respected wizards as masters, and that leads
them to
> choose the rich only to serve, as a status symbol among other house
elves.
>

a_svirn:
We simply do not know whether they are traded or not, so I don't
think it really can be used as an argument. And even if that were
true it is not so different from the real life slavery. Slavery comes
in varieties. For instance, though in 1807 slave trade was banned in
the British Empire, slavery itself was not abolished in the British
colonies for another couple of decades.

a_svirn