Issue 44
£8.00
Dream Catcher 44 seems to have been afflicted with an outbreak of nostalgia; perhaps reflecting a world wearied by the tenacity of the pandemic, which lingers like a bad odour round the boarded-up shops and travel agencies of our towns? Many of the poems and stories hark back to imaginary or remembered ages (golden as well as not so shiny), or feature elements of the fantastic and macabre – preferred modes of living, waiting like untried on clothes in the wardrobe, their sales tags swinging in the draught of the opened door. Of course, there’s the usual smattering of realism, too, with hearts (broken and intact), endings, the lessons of the natural world, high jinks and dancing, and the hope of resurrection (or at least change of a sort). It may be that we are channelling Richard Strauss’ tone poem, Death and Transfiguration, with reminiscences of childhood shoving against the challenges of adulthood, and a coming to terms with some sort of maturity and afterlife.
This issue’s artist is Peter Davis, who explores the solitude of digital devices now ubiquitous essentials to modern life. He contrasts the connectivity to the world with the disconnect to individual relationships.