Zine Review: Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream
Olivia M
http://oliviareadszines.wordpress.com

Dream a Little Dream is a 1/4 sized black and white zine about dreams, lucid dreaming, and more.

This zine is part of an APA-style* trade of dream zines borne of a conversation about dreams online. While I knew about the origins of this zine already from having participated in the conversation and overseeing the trade, I do like a ‘zine origin story’ to start me off.

In Dream a Little Dream, Olivia takes us through common themes in their dreams, traumatic life experiences that influence/d their zines, and a bit on lucid dreaming as well.

I didn’t really know what to expect from a dream zine (besides the obvious), but I found Olivia’s take on the prompt an engaging one. Starting out with their common dream themes was a good way to ‘break the ice’ and possibly find some factors in common. (I, too, have had dreams where I feel like and can ‘remember’ living a life in the dream world.)

Dream a Little Dream leaned more into the perzine side of things with the sections that followed with Olivia writing about two traumatic experiences as background to why they dream about certain things. I love a perzine anyway, but this ‘angle’ (if you will) made the subject at hand all the more interesting. It’s one thing to read about how someone dreams about trying to gather things but ultimately losing them; it adds a lot of dimension to read that things being taken away was a big trauma in their early life.

I enjoyed reading about how Olivia used lucid dreaming to explore their sexuality to the extent of wishing I’d thought of doing that myself. In this, lucid dreams represent an almost ultimate safe place from which to really get in touch with who you are.

Aesthetically, there is a lot to look at in this zine with backgrounds made up of patterned papers as well as some colouring in pages. It is a lot on the eyes on a few of the pages, but not hugely so – and Olivia makes use of black borders around the text blocks on some pages to help. There are times when I have the urge to reach for my coloured pencils, which is a fun, creative feeling.

There’s a bonus list of zines on sleep and dreams in the back, and I always love a good recommendations list. There are some quotes on dreams as well, though I had a bit of a chuckle, as the page is titled: “Random Dream Quotes (Because I Can’t Think of Anything Else to Write)”.

As good a reason as any for a quotes page, I reckon.

While I may not have been sure what I was expecting from a dream zine, Dream a Little Dream was a good read that got my mind thinking a bit (something I always appreciate). If you’re interested in dreams or the influence of trauma on dreams, then this is one to have a look at.

*Amateur Press Association