Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) and
Tilda Swinton (The White Witch) in UK's Magical Realms UK Stamp Set
Thanks to the Internet, courier services and portable communication devices, postal stamps have been relegated to the Almost Obsolete Club. In its heyday, stamps from the Isle of Man were the Holy Grail. Now-a-days, kids are going nuts with the glitzy Katy Perry Electronic Gift Certificate card. The digital era is in full swing and the odds are stacked against anything tedious, tangible and cumbersome. With the help of moneyed retirees and avid collectors, stamps managed to evade a bleak appointment with the Grim Reaper. Hallelujah!
Now back to more pressing matters....
Today's youth market is as bratty and finicky as ever. It's hard to get noticed when you're not Robert Pattinson, SpongeBob Square Pants or Justin Bieber. That doesn't mean stamps can't try, though. Innovations were made to make snail mail less tiresome. Sticker stamps were developed to address the mess of having to deal with the conventional self-adhesive stamp. Steps were also made to encourage young people to take up philately. (Although I'm not part of the J.K. Rowling target demographic, I found myself rushing online to buy the 2007 FrenchHarry Potter series.)
Most recently, the UK Royal Mail has released the Magical Realms Stamp collection, an eight-piece set featuring wizened wizards, hot witches and a talking lion. Although the legend of King Arthur, Narnia, Discworld and Harry Potter are well-represented, J.R.R. Tolkien's Rings trilogy is not. Where's Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) when you need them? Sunbathing at the Grey Havens spa?
For now, the icy gaze of the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) is more than enough.
Nice.
10 comments:
i can't say i'm a fan of the genre (don't shoot me) but i like the efforts to revive the lost art of letter writing. ;)
ʎonqʎʇıɔ: It's a dying hobby, electronic age na kasi. Hey, do you have stamps? Akin na lang, hehe. Sabay ganun :D
i don't. haha i can get some. katabi namin yung post office. gusto mo maya? lol
ʎonqʎʇıɔ: Joke lang, to naman, hehe :D
wala bang jodie foster stamps?
heje
Raft3r: Wala pang balita eh. Pero may bagong film siya with Mel Gibson, hehe
i have found that when i sent postcards from trips, it is met with short e-mail or fb-msg responses from receivers appreciating the efforts to revive the lost art. i have cut back on greeting cards because many of the people I regularly wrote have since died. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed receiving back the letters I wrote, that had been kept. It is this type of folk history whose death is a real tragedy for the living.
ןıuǝ oɟ ɟןıƃɥʇ: It's sad that traditional means of sending letters/postcards is slowly becoming "old school." There's nothing like receiving a postcard from a friend abroad sent through the mail. It makes everything more personal.
sometimes, it is the presence of middle men in the exchange of information that makes all the difference.
ןıuǝ oɟ ɟןıƃɥʇ: I agree, I think that makes it more human, more personal as opposed to just sending an E-mail to a friend. It also goes to show that more effort has been made on the sender's part.
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