• protist@mander.xyz
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    1 day ago

    The goblins, no argument here. But the rest, it seems like the entire point of the book is fighting against those things?

    • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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      22 hours ago

      Against the slavery of the elfs that was a Hermione thing that everyone else laughed about and it was used on the book for comedic bits.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        18 hours ago

        It’s not just comedic bits. It’s all over the place, just hitting the reader over the head that slavery is good because actually they like it and it’s good for them.

        It’s really annoying because Hermione does say something like they only like it because that’s the system they’ve been forced into and it’s all they know, but then everyone just rolls their eyes and says that she’s stupid for thinking this. It’s almost like Rowling knows that it should be seen as bad and why, but then can’t actually bring herself to write that because it blames systems, not people.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        So, the smartest character in the book fights for their freedom. I’m sure a lot of readers shared the opinion that the slavery was wrong.

        • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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          24 hours ago

          Her fight was still presented as a joke, bet half the readers just went “haha silly Hermione, who dosen’t wants free servants??”

          Edit: on top of that, Rowling uses the trope of the natural state of the slave is being slaved and is actually good for them, with the other freed house elves that is depressed because she dosen’t have a family to work for.

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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            24 hours ago

            Yes that edit is a good point that I’d forgotten.

            Moved on to Terry Pratchett early on, so much better in every way.

        • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          And then she just stopped doing it, I guess, because in the last book’s epilogue literally nothing changed with the system

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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            24 hours ago

            By then she was one of the “Haves.” Turns out she was selfish all along.

            Edit: I mean the author, not Hermione

    • flandish@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      it is indeed - they are antagonists. I’m just saying these themes are part of the built world.

        • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          A big issue is that they still exist in the “happily ever after” situation.

          When the horribly flawed government is now horribly flawed with good dictators, there is still massive racism and slavery that everyone approves of.

        • flandish@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          well I could make a (thin) case that it’s part of the world she built and the entire population except for a cohort of a small few children and some odd adults are against it.

          so the world at large is ok with that shite behavior; and judging by how many kids grew up to “be slytherin” we can see they just didn’t grok the actual story.

          • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            Even the kids in the story are mostly fine with it though. It’s good and proper to have slaves, and even the idea of free elves is something to be mocked by everyone.