? Goldfrapp: Ooh La La | Main | Deferred success ?
August 02, 2005
Potterheads
I suppose Harry Potter conventions were always going to be an inevitable byproduct of the success of the series. First, the American Nimbus Convention, then Canada's Convention Alley and now the Potterheads make their way to Accio! in Reading. Quidditch sans flying brooms is a sad prospect. Sadder still is the idea this might be a great way to meet that hypothetical nerd goddess I keep writing about. But I digress.
My first lecture is an Amnesty International take on house elves, the oppressed underclass of the wizarding world. In Potterland, these small, gnarled creatures, resembling miniature Vladimir Putins, are forced by the selfish wizard community to do all the dusting. Today, their advocate is Joanna Lipinska from the institute of ethnology and cultural anthropology at the University of Warsaw. Tall, slender and shining, she puts one in mind of a slightly cross kitchen knife.
"The enslavement of house elves goes back centuries," she says. "They are forced to wear tea towels instead of garments and they do not have the right of freedom of expression." Lipinska shakes her head in anguish. "I believe," she says, "that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be applied to the wizarding community."
"The enslavement of house elves goes back centuries," she says. "They are forced to wear tea towels instead of garments and they do not have the right of freedom of expression." Lipinska shakes her head in anguish. "I believe," she says, "that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be applied to the wizarding community."
Posted by Ghost of a flea at August 2, 2005 07:37 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/cgi-bin/mt/trackback-engine.cgi/4347