i see the "woah" people too! it makes me crazy, man. let us be language snobs together.

and, no, teachers in english schools are, in my experience, not called Professor. college professors are barely ever called Professor. they don't have assistant and associate professors, and full professors are much rarer than in the states -- it's not like what we're used to where a part-time lecturer who doesn't even have a doctorate is called 'professor' by people only three years younger than herself.

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I studied in England and I'm sure I had professors...but all I can remember are the tutors. *g*

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I hate the "woah" thing. It makes me think it rhymes with "Noah," which is just weird.

Also, I wanted to not make a choice but check both answers on the Hermione, Draco and Dumbledore questions. Sigh.

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I know....Draco in particular, although I finally came down on the side of "redeemable," because I'm just that much of a Hufflepuff.

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I need another choice on the last one... somewhere between the two. Ruthless, kindly, imperfect, manipulative bastard.

Snape? GREASY! Greasy with a capital Greez.

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Snape? GREASY! Greasy with a capital Greez.

Greasy liek woah! *g*

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BTW, stunned at the people who think slavery is okay...

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You and me both, sistah.

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I have a sneaking suspicion that at least half the people who spell it that way think it's spelled that way. The rest of us, I hope, are being ironic. For instance, "OMG ur so smrt liek woah." Cause for all my copious usage of the word "dude," I'd sacrifice myself on The Altar of Good Grammer before I talked like that.

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I suspect you're right about the percentage of people who think it's spelled "woah."

::sigh::

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I've wondered about "woah" as well. Up until about a year ago, I just assumed that the "woah" people were unknowingly spelling it wrong. As a misspelling, though, it seems to have seen an increase in popularity. I always take it as ironic netspeak if I see it teamed with "liek", but when it's just "woah" by itself, I still wonder whether it's intentional or not.

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My students don't spell it that way, but then again, they never use the word in *any* context.

(They do write "alot" and "eventhough," however. *g*)

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Re: both? I have no idea.

But my mother, bless her, the english teacher who can't spell, spells it "woah", and also says "yea" to me all the time in IM and e-mail. Drives me up the WALL.

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"Yea" meaning "yeah?" *g*

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I can't answer that poll. I tried, but I only got as far as Snape's hair (which, even though I like the bastard, I admit is greasy and probably unattractive - unless he's going for the whole Aragorn look)

*grins like whoa*

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Your *icon* is making me "grin liek woah."

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I kinda wanted to check both answers on all but the first one.

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::nods::

As of this moment, the *only* question over which there's no debate is the one about Snape's hair. *g*

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Hm.

Re. "woah" I'll admit that I've never noticed.

My brain does auto-typo/dialect/netspeak/ESL-correction so that sort of stuff goes right on past me.

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::hugs the spoiler ho::

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I have a friend who spells 'cool', 'kewl' and it makes me want to just scream.

I admit to using 'teh', though. :)

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I think we're *all* getting sucked into the whole "oh, I'm just using netspeak as a joke" thing. Soon, we'll all think "the" is *really* spelled "teh." :)

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I see a lot of "woahs" out there too. Also people who spell "yeah" as "yah" or "ya."

Incidentally, I was making phonics flashcards for my daughter today, and "whoa" was one of the examples I used for the "oa" sound. At least I'm doing my part to stamp out that particular misspelling in the next generation. :-)

As for the Professor thing, I've always thought it was strange too. Maybe since there aren't any universities in the wizarding world, Hogwarts is considered to be more of a university than a secondary school (in the medieval tradition of 13- and 14-year-olds going off to universities to study law and medicine). On the other hand, it's not as if people need any special academic credentials to teach there -- at least not if past DADA teachers are any indication -- so maybe not.

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On the other, other hand, creative writing programs at universities in the U.S. have *many* "professors" without doctorates (or MA's...or even BA's, in some cases) on the basis that if they can write (they're all published writers), they can teach at the tertiary level.

::bites tongue::

*g*

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On the house elves issue: house elves aren't human, and have a completely different culture and magical structure than humans. If they don't think it's slavery, isn't it awfully high-handed of Hermione to keep trying to free them? Especially since, despite being an obsessive researcher, she never seems to make an effort to talk to any elves besides Dobby, who's apparently the house elf version of the crazy guy who wears a tinfoil hat to keep out the alien rays.

That, and yeah. Greasy, even when we change it in fic not to be >:)

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See, to me, slavery of sentient beings is always going to be wrong, even if the beings in question have been trained/conditioned/spelled to think it's what they want. If even one House-Elf (even Dobby, who I'll grant you is weird *g*) wants his freedom, then the will-to-slavery can't be absolutely inherent in House-Elf psychology.

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So far as I am aware, calling the teachers "professor" is one of those things specific to the magical world - or perhaps to Hogwarts itself. "Potions master", otoh, is a whole 'nother thing...

As for 'woah', presumably lots of people these days have no clue about how to give commands to horses? ;-)

L the really, really tired

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Don't you mean "teh really tired liek woah?" *g*

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my woah is pasted on yay

The whole house-elf thing makes me intensely uncomfortable, enough so that I tend to hurry through those scenes even as I laugh at Herminone's earnest behavior. There is one more cross-cultural element to consider, though. Not only are we, as outsiders, trying to judge the relationships of various magical creatures (among which I also include wizards themselves) in the wizarding world, Hermione is one of us outsiders.

Whatever her magical talents, she has spent most of her life so far in the Muggle world. For all my self-identification with most of her passions, I can see how SPEW would be extremely offensive to many traditional wizards. They have welcomed Hermione into their culture based upon her native abilities, and after only a few years of knowledge, she begins to criticize and attempt to reform their long-held traditions. I think there is a nice parable there about colonialism and assumptions, even when the colonist/missionaries have the most pure and sincerely held beliefs.

It also raises interesting questions about the responsibilities of the wizarding establishment toward muggle-borns with magical powers.

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You're absolutely right, of course...and I'm always very aware in discussions like this that I'm seeing things from the perspective of a Muggle (like Hermione).

You know, interestingly enough, when it comes to *other* issues of alien culture and behavior, I don't have the same difficulties with acceptance. Like...I'm a pacifist, but when I watch the Klingon scenes in ST: TNG, it's fairly easy for me to understand the Klingon's warlike culture and their whole "today is a good day to die" thing. Slavery, however, seems to be my line in the sand.

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#1 may come from the old Tintin comics - Tintin's dog constantly says that instead of barking.

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I like that answer...except I almost always see Americans writing it, and Tintin was never very well-known here.

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Draco Malfoy
Redeemable
Death Eater in Training

Albus Dumbledore
Kindly, but Imperfect
Manipulative Bastard

I voted for these, but my real answers are "neither" for the first and "both" for the second. :D

Sleep is for the weak! Or I just woke up. Whatever.

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I ended up not sleeping at all (well, except for a nap) and then I thought "omigod, I have to teach today *and* hand in papers!" (none of which I'd graded over the weekend. *g*)

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Calling Hogwarts faculty "professor" makes sense to me: I never realized that it wouldn't for others. In many ways, the W.W. is patterned on pre-20th century social forms, and this is one example. In the 19th century, secondary school teachers got that title in many cultures (certainly, in Germany and France) and I think in some British schools (? am not completely sure here, and will defer to real Brits if necessary).

So, I just assumed that JKR was going for a 19th century feel, there.

All titles are arbitrary conventions, and vary by culture, of course. In Germany, I'm Frau Doktor Professor Cordelia. Feels stupid, when I'm addressed that way.

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Dear Frau Doktor Professor Cordelia,

Thank you for your very insightful comment, *g*

(seriously, that makes as much sense as anything else. I mean, there's no reason everybody's sort of *wearing* 19th century garb, but they are.)

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I didn't answer the quiz because I wanted to answer "All of the Above" on too many of them.

On the S.P.E.W. issue, I think that the issue needs addressing and that Hermione is going about it all wrong. What it reminds me of is a woman I know who visited Iran many years ago. During the shah's reign Iran was being "modernized" whether anyone wanted it or not, including ripping burkas off of women found wearing them in the streets. Now to our Western sensibilities, wearing burkas is a symbol of women's subjectation, so eliminating burkas must be a good thing, right? As a feminist, which both the woman who visited Iran and I are, we should approve.

Unfortunately, taking choice away from someone is seldom a good way to free them. You need to educate them so that they can--and will--make that choice for themselves, while simultaneously changing the laws so that they are supported when and if they do make that choice. Otherwise you're likely to get liberation in name only. Right now we see two models for emancipated house-elfs--there's Dobby, who sold himself back to Dumbledore in all but name, and Winky, who disintegrated.

On a practical level, then, I think that Hermione needs to convince Dumbledore to announce to all house-elfs that any free house-elf will be hired afterwards if they want, and then she needs *talk* to the house-elfs and explain what freedom is and why they might want it. (Consciousness-raising, to use the terminology of the early feminist movement.) She's arrogant enough that the only people she's talking to are humans, which is eerily like the 19thC abolitionists who only talked to the "best" (upper-class, white) people about the need to free the wretched slaves.

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I get what you're saying (and yes, she should be talking to the Elfs), but the reason the abolitionists talked to non-slaves is the same reason Hermione talks to humans: they're the only ones who can do anything about the conditions under which the House-Elfs work and live. The laws need to be changed, and obviously beings who aren't protected by those laws can't do anything about them.

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What about Mencken's crack that the Puritans hated bear-baiting not because of the pain it caused the bear but the pleasure it gave the spectators? The House Elves don't substitute for *human* labor, they substitute for spells which are a free rather than an economic good.

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::nods::

Although, there are theories floating around that each spell cast actually depletes (if only temporarily) ones store of magical energy, in which case, keeping House-Elves around would make sense for people who are interested in being wealthy in *all* areas (like the Malfoys).

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I think Hermione's efforts to free the house-elves are both arrogant and humanitarian, but I checked "humanitarian," because it's not an easy question to answer, and personally I'd rather err on the anti-slavery side. Also, she's a 15-year-old girl trying to start a social movement, and some singleminded zeal sort of comes with that territory; Hermione at 25 or 35 will probably deal with those questions much more sensibly.

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See, this I agree with. I mean, the *way* she approaches it is arrogant, but I can't help but agree with her instincts, regardless of how she approaches it.

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People actually use "woah"? Whoa. That's really weird. I think if I ran across it (which I haven't much, to my memory), I'd wonder what they were talking about, really.

Oh, and as to the Snape's hair question, I wanted to pick "fine and shiny" because the notion of anyone's hair being greasy is just disgusting to me, but I had to go with what the books actually indicate.

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See...three people actually (as of this moment) *did* check "fine and shiny," and I'm dying to ask them if they were joking or if they really think harry is really that far off in his perceptions.

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When it comes to House-elves -

Well, here's my personal theory.

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That's a *very* interesting essay. Like a lot of people, I'm not sure I buy it, but it's probably as believable as anything Jo has thought up to explain the House-Elf situation (and likely *much* more well thought out). One of the things I like most about this theory is that Dumbledore's comments about the House-Elves at the end of OotP don't contradict it. He's seeing bad treatment of the Elves, yes...but that doesn't mean they *couldn't* be in some sort of symbiotic relationship with families and/or land.

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1. Are there really so many people in the world (i.e., my f'list) who think "whoa!" is spelled "woah!" - or is the odd spelling just part of the whole ironic netspeak thing?

It drove me crazy for the longest time. Then I decided to pretend that it was an alternate British spelling or something. To save myself irritation. *g*

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You are a clever, clever woman. *g*

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BTW, in regards to the House-Elf slavery question, I definitely believe that they're enslaved and should be freed. However, I think Hermione is arrogant to assume that they'll automatically want to be freed. She doesn't even try to understand their point of view, and gets indignant when most of them refuse her help and avoid her. I like Hermione a lot, but while I admire her passionate convictions on this subject, I think she needs to be whacked upside the head and made to listen to what Ron has to say on the subject.

This is why I wanted to answer "all of the above" for that question.

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Which is exactly why I didn't allow anyone the possiblity of "all of the above." *g*

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