The Final Botan Rice Candy Sticker
from the Botan Death March dept.
October 19, 2000

And suddenly, the Botan universe reveals a new wrinkle -- sans car, avec child, the monkey combo grins their way into our hearts. By shattering the animal/vehicle paradigm, the true possibilities of these stickers are finally revealed. If a lowly adhesive has the strength and confidence to try something new, shouldn't we do the same? Brave though it might sound now, we shall bear down the opposition, we shall sweep it before us - and Chicago will be ours! Chicago will be ours! CHICAGO WILL BE OURS!

And now, the point...

When I first proposed the idea of putting 10 Botan Rice Candy stickers on tc.com, it seemed to me that the perfect way to conclude the series was with an intricate analysis of the images provided. I felt these simple stickers would be best explained by running them through the filter of dada or post-modernism or Hello-Kitty-Feminism.

But as I sit here, on the cusp of deadline, looking back at the "Botan Clan," I am having second thoughts. I am less driven by laziness than by fears of ruining the fragile fun of these adhesive amusements. They are, after all, children's stickers, and perhaps the leaps of logic adults find themselves engaging in when faced with an armless elephant driving a van, or a banshee driving a station wagon with wood paneling are unhealthy. These images obviously have an inner logic, a central dictum, it's just a matter of finding it. But that task might be best left up to the individual.

In all these 10 weeks (well, actually 11), I have not discussed the curious confectionery that drives the creation of these images in the first place. Each piece of rice candy is wrapped in a small piece of plastic, which, once removed, reveals an edible rice paper covering. For premium enjoyment, you put the candy (sans plastic wrapper) in your mouth, and let the rice paper slowly dissolve, before chewing that tasty little brown square of millet and rice. I believe this to be the best metaphor for the stickers - they are meant to be slowly savoured, an acquired taste, as the koala in the dune buggy proves so well.

So please, I encourage you to relish in the ambiguity these images provided. Further analysis would only damage their fragile beauty. The sticker, like our reaction to them, should remain within the domain of wonder and promise. Keeping that promise and wonder as pristine as possible is my gift to you.