[ SECRET POST #2262 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2262 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 040 secrets from Secret Submission Post #323.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[sugar_spun]

So yeah, I would totally side-eye fans who try to justify the slavery. I mean, how do they explain Dobby? Dobby wasn't different because he was weird or deviant or something, it was because he either had enough grit and intelligence to realize that taking care of humans =/= being a slave, or was in a terrible enough situation that he decided he'd rather be free than serve the Malfoys. Which is, y'know, a good thing.

But...all of the house elves consider Dobby to be weird and deviant. Think of a facet of the human condition, and I promise you there's someone out there who subverts it. This doesn't mean that Dobby "saw through" something, it just means he's fundamentally different, and as far as we know, the only reason for that is the severe abuse he suffered.

I think the real issue is that people expect house elves to act and think and want like humans, but they're not human. They don't think like humans, they don't have human thoughts, morals, or ideas, they have house elf ones.

I don't know, maybe it makes more sense to me because I'm more of a sci-fi fan, and the concept of alien psychology is a big theme. I like house elves because they're probably the only species or element of Rowling's universe that is actually separated from humans. You look at things like the Sorting Hat, and it's really messed up, but somehow it's okay because it's a wizarding tradition.

If there's any issue with the elves, it's that their abuse is actually acceptable in wizarding society, and Rowling really never addresses how messed up that is. But the concept of a species that only desires to do household chores is a really long standing on in human folk lore.

[intrigueing]

When I say "weird" and "deviant" I meant from the reader's POV, not from the House Elves. He was definitely weird and deviant from a House Elf POV, but he was supposed to be the "right" one from the readers' POV.

But I think Rowling does address it. She doesn't make anything big of it, because god forbid DH be about anything interesting (still bitter!), but the scene in the kitchens in GoF where Winky was drunk and Hermione tries to get them to join SPEW pretty handily portrayed the House Elves there as having a pretty terrible mindset.