CHAPDISC: HBP30, The White Tomb

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 165776

> > 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.

a_svirn:
I think it is significant. In some ways Aragog's burial is a
counterpoint to Dumbledore's funeral service. The former is a farce,
but it shows the usual procedure. The latter is a tragedy, but here
something very unusual is going on


> Celia:

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.

a_svirn:
hear, hear!

> Celia:
>
> 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.

a_svirn:
Or maybe she wanted to bring our attention to the difference between
the two? Hagrid couldn't allow the spiders to eat Aragog's body
because it isn't "proper" (for humans, presumably, since it's
perfectly natural for the spiders, and I'll bet not even Aragog
himself would have objected to this.) Obviously, he thought burial is
just the thing. And from the way he and Slughorn carried off the
whole business of burial it is clear that they followed some kind of
established procedure.


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

a_svirn:
As Malcolm said (in Macbeth),
"Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it"