CHAPDISC: HBP30, The White Tomb

[cdayr]

No: HPFGUIDX 165760

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Dondee Gorski" 
<sweetophelia4u at ...> wrote:
>
> Celia wrote:
> <snip>didn't Harry attend Aragog's funeral? What was that, if 
not a 
> funeral? Why does Harry dismiss it? A little human-centric bias 
there 
> I think! <snip>
> 
> Dondee responds:
> Aragog had a burial not a funeral. A funeral is the ceremony 
held 
> before the burial. Also, it is only ever refered to as a burial in 
the 
> book.
> 
> Cheers, Dondee >^,,^<
>

Hi Dondee!
Allow me to say that I am feeling odd about replying at all 
because I really think this is a very small and unimportant point 
that is of no real significance to anything, but I DO think that Harry 
attended a funeral for Aragog. Hagrid is dressed in a black 
armband, there are guests (I know, sort of, as none of them are 
there for Aragog except Hagrid, but Slughorn even puts on a 
special cravat), and Slughorn makes a poignant eulogy for the 
big guy (as insincere as it is, he does say some nice words- 
"May your many-eyed descendants ever flourish," etc.)). It is an 
"observance held for a dead person usually before burial," which 
is what my dictionary calls a funeral.

I can almost picture an earlier draft of the entire chapter about 
Aragog called "After the Funeral" instead of "After the Burial," but 
once JKR realized she wanted Dumbledore's funeral to be 
Harry's first, she had to go back and change the word "funeral" to 
"burial" throughout this chapter. Nonetheless, it is technically a 
funeral, IMHO, and it think it is authorial convenience that Harry et 
al choose to call it "burial" so that Harry can have his special 
funeral moment later.  

To me it is one of the troubling plot vs. story moments in HBP. 
For the effect of the story, it is special and meaningful and 
essential that Harry's first experience with a funeral is 
Dumbledore's. I'm glad it is. But for purposes of the plot, he has 
to attend Aragog's funeral first.  So JKR just uses semantics to 
hide that fact.

Again, who cares really? But I want to give Hagrid his props- I 
think he threw a nice little funeral for his good old friend Aragog. 

Celia
always partial to Aragog for some weird reason, and sad that he 
died without getting to do anything else interesting