part two
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Jessica Mitford was one of the seven remarkable children of Baron Reedesdale. Seven girls and one son. Many of these children were highly talented. Nancy became an author, but for this story we will look only at Jessica, Diana and Unity.
Jessica and Unity, the youngest, shared a room together when they were young girls. This was in the thirties, and Jessica was a devout follower of Communism (which was the fashionable thing to be if you were young, rich and rebellious) Her side of the room was hung with posters of Lenin. Unity, who was less pretty, less talented, less everything than her sisters loved to shock her family and garner their attention by openly declaring her alliance with the nazi party in Germany and idolized Hitler. Her side of the room was hung with nazi posters and swastica flags.
This would all have been a girlish adolescent notion of a foolish fifteen year old, but her older sister Diana divorced her husband to become the mistress (and later wife) of Sir Oswald Moseley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists.
Diana's father, Baron Reedesdale (whom Jessica described as 'nature's fascist'), loathed Oswald and Hitler, and forbade his youngest all contact, but of course Unity rebelled and became a member of the British Union of Fascists.
She then persuaded her family to let her study in Germany, where she stalked Hitler and eventually was introduced to him and became one of his inner circle.
Jessica went the opposite side of her sister's leanings. She was a member of the communist party, fought against Franco etc. etc.
So alright, this sounds as if the Mitford sisters were the inspirations for the Black Sisters. So what does this have to do with Hermione and the house elves?
Well, Jessica went to live in London's East End (a strictly working class erea) for a while, to rally up the workers to overthrow the kapitalists. The East Enders weren't interested in this posh girls rantings though. They were *proud* of their work, their culture, and they didn't need this rich girl telling them what to do. Jessica was exasperated. "Are *these* people going to be the Army that throws down the Enemy?", she wrote in her diary.
Then the lights went out. The electricity no longer worked. Disappointed, Jessica returned home. Why didn't the electricity work? Because she had never paid the bills. She had been cut off. But she had never had to pay bills before, daddy had always taken care of such things, so she had just ignored those annoying things.
Years later, when she wrote her autobiography 'Hons and Rebels', she would be amused at her youthful zeal and her foolishness.
Years later and years older and living and working in the US, Jessica got disenchanted with communism and left the Communist Party USA (her co-worker Dobby had invited her into it btw. Dobby, you say? Yes, Dobby)
So there you have it. Hermione is trying, just as Jessica was, to incite the house elves to revolt against their masters, only to learn that she has foolishly assumed to know better what is good for them. They need to decide for themselves what they want with their lives.
So what is wrong with this picture?
What is wrong is that JKR apparently has *no idea* that being working class is not the same as being a slave. Being proud of being working class is not the same as being proud of being owned.
Now, if she had said 'the house elves are representatives of the working class, and I've made a political statement about how some people will always be on the bottom end of the pile because they seem to prefer it', I would say 'fair enough, that's your political view', but she doesn't. She doesn't seem to see the difference. It's as if she read the book, was inspired by Jessica's umph, wanted to emulate her as a child and when grown up reflected that in the character Hermione Granger and she never, ever saw what was wrong to mold her middle class ideas about the 'working class' into a slave race and her ideas about 'the kapitalists' into a race that loves gold and therefore has to be kept down. She doesn't even see what is wrong with those ideas, and it's very very creepy.
Jessica and Unity, the youngest, shared a room together when they were young girls. This was in the thirties, and Jessica was a devout follower of Communism (which was the fashionable thing to be if you were young, rich and rebellious) Her side of the room was hung with posters of Lenin. Unity, who was less pretty, less talented, less everything than her sisters loved to shock her family and garner their attention by openly declaring her alliance with the nazi party in Germany and idolized Hitler. Her side of the room was hung with nazi posters and swastica flags.
This would all have been a girlish adolescent notion of a foolish fifteen year old, but her older sister Diana divorced her husband to become the mistress (and later wife) of Sir Oswald Moseley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists.
Diana's father, Baron Reedesdale (whom Jessica described as 'nature's fascist'), loathed Oswald and Hitler, and forbade his youngest all contact, but of course Unity rebelled and became a member of the British Union of Fascists.
She then persuaded her family to let her study in Germany, where she stalked Hitler and eventually was introduced to him and became one of his inner circle.
Jessica went the opposite side of her sister's leanings. She was a member of the communist party, fought against Franco etc. etc.
So alright, this sounds as if the Mitford sisters were the inspirations for the Black Sisters. So what does this have to do with Hermione and the house elves?
Well, Jessica went to live in London's East End (a strictly working class erea) for a while, to rally up the workers to overthrow the kapitalists. The East Enders weren't interested in this posh girls rantings though. They were *proud* of their work, their culture, and they didn't need this rich girl telling them what to do. Jessica was exasperated. "Are *these* people going to be the Army that throws down the Enemy?", she wrote in her diary.
Then the lights went out. The electricity no longer worked. Disappointed, Jessica returned home. Why didn't the electricity work? Because she had never paid the bills. She had been cut off. But she had never had to pay bills before, daddy had always taken care of such things, so she had just ignored those annoying things.
Years later, when she wrote her autobiography 'Hons and Rebels', she would be amused at her youthful zeal and her foolishness.
Years later and years older and living and working in the US, Jessica got disenchanted with communism and left the Communist Party USA (her co-worker Dobby had invited her into it btw. Dobby, you say? Yes, Dobby)
So there you have it. Hermione is trying, just as Jessica was, to incite the house elves to revolt against their masters, only to learn that she has foolishly assumed to know better what is good for them. They need to decide for themselves what they want with their lives.
So what is wrong with this picture?
What is wrong is that JKR apparently has *no idea* that being working class is not the same as being a slave. Being proud of being working class is not the same as being proud of being owned.
Now, if she had said 'the house elves are representatives of the working class, and I've made a political statement about how some people will always be on the bottom end of the pile because they seem to prefer it', I would say 'fair enough, that's your political view', but she doesn't. She doesn't seem to see the difference. It's as if she read the book, was inspired by Jessica's umph, wanted to emulate her as a child and when grown up reflected that in the character Hermione Granger and she never, ever saw what was wrong to mold her middle class ideas about the 'working class' into a slave race and her ideas about 'the kapitalists' into a race that loves gold and therefore has to be kept down. She doesn't even see what is wrong with those ideas, and it's very very creepy.