Tuesday, July 17, 2007
More, Worse Potter
The latest Harry Potter outrage is a set of commemorative stamps. Having refused to mark the various anniversaries of two of our greatest poets and one of our greatest composers (Blake, Auden, Elgar), the Royal Mail sees fit to publicise the latest in a hugely over-hyped sequence of children's books. A philatelic survey of the Queen's reign offers a dismal, all-too-recognisable picture of what's happened to Britain in the past half century. Back in the 50s and 60s, years went by with no commemorative issues at all, and on the rare occasions one appeared it was decently, sometimes beautifully designed (e.g. David Gentleman's Shakespeare quatercentenary set). Now it's a free-for-all , with 20 or more issues a year of mostly trashy designs that barely look like postage stamps. Hell, handcart, etc...
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Sorry, Nige, I'm confused. Are you saying there's a set commemorating our going to hell in a handcart? If so, I want them.
ReplyDeleteHang in there, Nige. Obviously we are just a short time away from a set commemorating Britain's greatest blogs. Your fifteen minutes is on the horizon.
ReplyDeleteThere is, Big Chip, but it's masquerading as a Harry Potter set. And I'm ready for my 15 minutes, Peter - the Groucho byline pic is with the designers.
ReplyDeleteThere is, Big Chip, but it's masquerading as a Harry Potter set. And I'm ready for my 15 minutes, Peter - the Groucho byline pic is with the designers.
ReplyDeleteOf all the symptoms of our going to hell in a handcart, the state of our commemorative stamps is one that's pretty hard to get enraged about.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the effort though, Nige.
It's a good question, however. If we had a set of stamps to commemorate our going to hell in a handcart, what would be on them?
Sven Goran Eriksson, George Galloway and black cherry yoghurts, obviously. But what else?
I was writing as one who used to care, Brit... And I'd put a plastic wine 'cork' on the stamps.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be on them, Brit? For me it would be a picture of Mandy Dingle wearing edible undies while presenting the new series of 'The Snuff Movie Quiz' where members of the public send in home videos of themselves in horrendous accidents involving snowploughs.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but when you say Potter I naturally think of Beatrix.
ReplyDeleteYou must think of the poor, wretched royal mail operatives huddled around their braziers of a cold, wet summer's morning - they need the revenue that these pop stamps bring in. you can't have your cake and eat it, nige, something's gotta give!
I wonder if they'll be seling them at ASDA?
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing - it's the 250th anniversary of this great man. Don't hold your breath for the commemorative stamps.
ReplyDelete