Saturday, December 21, 2013

Sunday Stamps # 151

We are so close to Christmas!  Sadly it has been raining all day and all our snow is gone here in the Midwest.  And it looks like the warmish weather will continue and no more snow. :-(

Anyway, it's Saturday evening and time for Sunday Stamps.  Our theme this week is fantasy, especially children's fantasy.  I have some fun and yes controversial stamps to share with you.  First, a scan from the stamp booklet:



"Just before his eleventh birthday, a boy received a letter that would change his life.... and captivate the imaginations of fans for generations."

 
 
 Yes, it is Harry Potter! [a quibble here: Peter Pan has been around for generations, Harry Potter not so much.  Will this series of books be so popular in 100 years?]

I am showing 8 of the 20 different stamps in this booklet. The stamps feature images from the series of movies - from the very first (the kids are so young!) to the most recent.

Now for the controversy.  There is some talk that these stamps are "un-American."  Let me quote from the LA Times:

"Some members of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, which for 56 years has researched and recommended subjects for new stamps, are upset after the Postal Service bypassed that panel in its decision to run 100 million Potter stamps, the Washington Post reports.
“Harry Potter is not American. It’s foreign, and it’s so blatantly commercial it’s off the charts,” said John Hotchner, a former president of the American Philatelic Society, who served on the committee for 12 years until 2010. “The Postal Service knows what will sell, but that’s not what stamps ought to be about. Things that don’t sell so well are part of the American story.”
But after declining revenue as Americans switch to the Internet, the USPS “needs to change its focus toward stamps that are more commercial,” Postmaster General Patrick R. Don­ahoe told the Post."

Oh dear.  Well they are issued now and I think they will be popular.

Please join me with your fantastical stamps, of any sort.

Theme next week:  No Sunday Stamps, I am taking the week off.
Theme two weeks from now: Olympics stamps, featuring Sochi or any other Games.

Viridian

7 comments:

Postcardy said...

The Harry Potter generation doesn't collect stuff or send mail, so why would they want to buy those stamps?

luvlinens said...

It is funny you say that. I was just at the Post Office a couple of days ago to buy stamps. The choices were Harry or the Emancipation Proclamation. I chose Emancipation

Heleen said...

I like those stamps!
And thank you for sharing your thoughts and the interesting article. Concerning 'foreign': here in the Netherlands many people don't hear the difference between English and American English, and as the Harry Potter movies have a lot of surprising action, I think many people here consider these movies (and books!) are from the USA :-)
The author of course is British, and the boarding-school looks British, too, as is the accent of Harry c.s. But I must admit that - thanks to your post - I had to look up where the movies in fact is from. And although Wikipedia says it's a British-American serie, the fact that Warner Bros is the producer, makes it for us (the over-sea foreigners) an American movie indeed!

Lisa B said...

Is there some kind of Harry Potter anniversary around that makes it an interesting theme for now?

Bob Scotney said...

I was going to ask why shouldn't the USA have stamps which are not classed as 'American' until I found out that Great Britain does not have commemorative stamps that show non-British activities. In fact the only example I've found so far was issued to commemorate the Bicentennial of American Independence in 1978.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

Considering what Heleen has to say, I wonder if Peter Pan would be considered un-American? And yet Peter Pan has been made into all sorts of American films. Movies, I should say. :)

I'm not fond of the Harry Potter books but anything that gets children reading is A Good Thing in my view.

Joy said...

When GB did Harry Potter characters they were popular with people all over the world, and the US ones I think will be sought after by Potter fans in the same way. The number does seem excessive though.

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