Response to Ashali's Question

3. Why would one want to design/view a stamp as a metaphor? Why is meaning needed behind sending something from one place to another?

Good question, and one that I think is harder to understand in our current communicative society, which values speed (in the form of email) over any sort of "art" or "metaphor." Snail mail is a secondary form of communication, except for boring things such as bills or political candidates searching for a vote.

A stamp is a form of advertisement. When they were designed, artists used them to glorify certain figures. Elkins uses the example of the queen.

Otherwise, I've used stamps to convey a certain tone. For example, when sending hand-written notes to professors who wrote scholarship applications for me, I put X-Men stamps on them. That's me: fun-loving, the spirit of a child, and thanking those profs for being "supernaturally" good at writing for me.

People can convey partiality to a cause, important historical figure, or nationalism through stamps. At my house we use "USA" stamps or "Liberty Bell" stamps. Figure that as long as we're sending it to someone in the US, most won't be offended or disagree with our choice of stamp.

Ultimately, it's better to convey something interesting and artsy than nothing. Stamps provide color for mail; I'm not sure we need to look too much beyond that except on a specific case-by-case basis.