'Ariel'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
It also never made sense to me that Hermione never realized (or thought about) who did the work in the castle.
I handwaved that with her being Muggle-born and she thought it was all magic. The lesson being, magic doesn't cook food. House-Elves with magic cook food.
The only interesting thing I find about SPEW is how the house elves think it's stupid, and then you get into the debate "If an oppressed people don't believe they're oppressed, are they really oppressed?" which leads to the nasty arguments of "Oh, they're happy to be slaves!" which fortunately can be countered with "You don't see house elves trying to run away enmasse."
I handwaved that with her being Muggle-born and she thought it was all magic. The lesson being, magic doesn't cook food. House-Elves with magic cook food.
I can buy that, really. I mean, since Hogwarts: A History never mentions them, what was she supposed to think? It's totally all magic! You go into the Great Hall, and food just appears (literally). Who knows where it comes from?
Even though it was annoying I also thought it was exactly something a young teen like Hermione would do.
Yeah, I think it did fit her young, upstanding character; it was just annoying.
Even though it was annoying I also thought it was exactly something a young teen like Hermione would do.
I actually loves the SPEW stuff, because I had a dear friend in high school who was an honors student and who took up causes with an almost irrational zeal. Hermione much reminds me of her.
What I think is really interesting is the way she shows how social norms are maintained -- she represents it as a thing that no one except Hermione cares about, and everyone thinks she's silly for caring about it, including Harry. Harry has no reason to think it's an okay thing except that everyone else does, and everyone brushes her off, so he does too.
But Harry has more reason to try to "fit in" than Hermione does -- he's been trying to fade into the background his entire life while Hermione comes from a very different place and I think that's why Harry accepts what's "normal" in this case.
Oh, Amazon says that the post office is holding my book awaiting customer orders. What does that mean?
If it's like the last book release, it most likely means that the post office has your book--whether that means in IL or at the Amazon distribution side, I don't know. But, you'll be getting it tomorrow, for sure!
Possibly it just means that they're taunting you with the fact that IT'S THERE BUT YOU CAN'T HAVE IT MUWAH-HA-HA!
I doublechecked - it's UPS not USPS -- but same thing, right? And I can't have it delivered before tomorrow anyway, right?