House Elves were one of the things that made me realize that JK Rowling was something of a hack. I found it odd that Hermione was the first person in the wizarding world to ever point out that House Elves were slaves and were being treated very badly. In the thousands of years that wizards and wizard schools had existed, no one ever protested the treatment of House Elves? Not even the ‘Good Guys’? Everyone just accepted this over the centuries??
And then she does almost nothing with this potential plot point…
Yes, I find this frustrating too! However, before I fully realized what JKR was like, I kind of thought it was perhaps good writing, because it was reminiscent of how it works in reality. In real world, not even most good people care eg. about slave labour around the world that is directly conected to the production of the goods they use. I had shimmers along my spine reading it, because it rang true to me. Well meaning people CAN be totally oblivious to other people’s suffering, including me.
House Elves were one of the things that made me realize that JK Rowling was something of a hack. I found it odd that Hermione was the first person in the wizarding world to ever point out that House Elves were slaves and were being treated very badly. In the thousands of years that wizards and wizard schools had existed, no one ever protested the treatment of House Elves? Not even the ‘Good Guys’? Everyone just accepted this over the centuries??
And then she does almost nothing with this potential plot point…
Yes, I find this frustrating too! However, before I fully realized what JKR was like, I kind of thought it was perhaps good writing, because it was reminiscent of how it works in reality. In real world, not even most good people care eg. about slave labour around the world that is directly conected to the production of the goods they use. I had shimmers along my spine reading it, because it rang true to me. Well meaning people CAN be totally oblivious to other people’s suffering, including me.