BUY MY BUNNY
My most prized childhood possession, "Bunny" is a stuffed animal that was given to me at the age of three before undergoing surgery. I kept Bunny by my side during hospital visits and slept with him under my arm every night until I was twelve. Bunny wears a home-made vest sewn in cooperation with my mom sometime around 1986. His home-made booties, also made from scraps of fabric, are now lost. The handmade vest features a print of rabbits over both front pockets, and a magnificent stag sewn onto the back. Bunny is a typical child's object that could have belonged to any child, but he belonged to me specifically.
BUNNY FOR SALE
My Bunny is being made available to the public for the low low price of $19.95 plus shipping and handling. I'm moving to Berlin in one week and am getting rid of everything I own except for a few bags of clothing and electronics. Bunny will not be coming with me. This exciting offer is about to expire -- take advantage of my prized childhood possession now, before it's too late.
Bunny will be sold via craigslist post appearing at http://chicago.craigslist.org/for on January 5th 2005. I have successfully used craigslist to sell my car, furniture, and old PC. These photos constitute a special preview offer for those who frequent my site. There will be no auctioning - the price is set at $19.95 plus shipping. I am aware that the eventual buyer of Bunny might be a pervert who will deflower or torture him, a collector who will put him in a trophy room of internet objects, a mother giving him to another child, someone who will love him more than I ever could, or perhaps even a speculator aiming to re-sell him at a higher price. The profile of the buyer is unimportant to me.
The thought of selling Bunny came to me when I was un-boxing my new iPod. As part of my move to Berlin I have sold all my CDs and uploaded their data to an iPod. I have no nostalgia for this iPod and will resell it eventually, transferring my mp3s to a better vessel. The same type of data transfer is being performed in this sale of my Bunny. My data is what matters. Bunny's data, his attached history, has been safely transferred and will live on in me. I can access this data whenever I choose. The object of Bunny is only a commodity in the world, a pile of musty old molecules exchanged like corn or rice or iPods.
Act Now!
BUNNY SOLD
Bunny was sucessfully sold to someone I have never met before and do not intend to ever meet. Her name is Carrie and she lives in Massachusetts. Carrie and her husband have stated via email that they would like for Bunny to live with them. Carrie has also cited a favorite childhood toy of her own (now lost) that was made from the same "pink separated-into-spikes" material as a reason for purchase. The price of $19.95 plus $7.75 UPS Ground shipping was paid for via check. $19.95 is the price-point cliche for many crappy items on television. Shortly after the completion of sale, pictures arrived of the product in its new home.
I boxed up Bunny at a UPS store. The motion of the tape gun was very familiar to me, since many of my former places of employment have required a great deal of boxing and shipping. I hugged Bunny and felt his smooth eyes and chunky fur for the last time. I put him inside the little coffin with paper padding. The box was taken away from me. I looked at the check I had received, a light blue check with a dark blue border. An immense sadness filled me for twenty-five minutes, a very deep and low frequency wave.
Suddenly I felt a rush of power. It was a sense of power unlike anything I have ever felt. It was the power of Bunny's data surging through my brain. Bunny will never become my Rosebud. Rosebud is a notion from a time when nostalgia and objects were fused. Nostalgia is now derived from data -- and the sale of Bunny is an exercise in accepting that objects, all objects, are powerless commodities. I was compensated two-fold in my sale -- I walked away with $19.95, and I will not be whispering the name of any object on my deathbed.
Kevin Bewersdorf
Christmas Day 2004
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