Random Thoughts on The Simpsons Stamps
You may’ve noticed that there are now Simpsons stamps. Finally, a Simpsons-related item that I didn’t own … which gave rise to an odd situation, as I actually ended up buying something Simpsons related (to date, almost everything has been given to me, often in triplicate, by well-meaning people trying to figure out what would make a suitable gift).
I must say, though, that I’m not impressed. The artwork may well be Groening, but Homer doesn’t look like the Homer I know. Or, rather, he looks like Homer does when I try to draw him, not when one of the show’s excellent animators does it.
All the same, as I stood in the long line at the post office on Lexington Ave. waiting to buy them, my mind wandered to how I would use them, or, rather, to how I would use Homer stamps versus Lisa stamps versus Maggie stamps, etc. Extrapolating, I’d love to know how anyone who owns the stamps uses them — what meanings might they tell us about how people relate to The Simpsons. While this is hypothetical research, and, especially given some (welcome) privacy laws regarding mail, impossible research, but pondering what it could unearth gestures further to the importance of paratexts, and to the riches that lie beneath exerted study of paratexts and their use.
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