Last night I read Neil Gaiman novella, The Sandman: Dream Hunters, which I had uncovered while packing up my bookshelf the other day. Novella’s are a unique reading experience to me because one can typically read the complete work in one sitting. It gives you a different feel to start and end a piece of literature in a single block of time, as opposed to the multiple sessions that it usually takes me to finish a novel; and I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment that this experience brings. This is not unlike short stories, but the narrative structure of a novella seems quite a bit different then that of a fifteen page short story. I remember reading a quote by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein where he suggested that a short story should hit the ground running and never look back, so perhaps the difference between a novella and a short story is pace. Among other things… The Wikipedia entry on novella has an interesting quote by Robert Silverberg from the introduction of his novella Sailing to Byzantium:

[The novella] is one of the richest and most rewarding of literary forms…it allows for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the elaborate structural demands of the full-length book. Thus it provides an intense, detailed exploration of its subject, providing to some degree both the concentrated focus of the short story and the broad scope of the novel.

But I digress, so back to Gaiman’s novella. Dream Hunters is a retelling of an old Japanese fairy tale about a monk and a fox, and their mutual affection to each other (I guess you could call it a love story). It’s not a cautionary tale per say, but there is a lesson to be learned and writing style like those you’d expect to find in a fairy tale. The novella is illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano who’s work graced the Final Fantasy video game franchise. Amano also illustrated Hideyuki Kikuchi‘s Vampire Hunter D novels, which have recently been translated into English published by Dark Horse Press. In Dream Hunters, the surreal illustrative style beautifully augments Gaiman’s narrative prose. The prose also provides a wonderful context to Amano’s work. This seems like a mute point, but after having only seen Amano’s colour illustrations put together seemingly haphazardly in a coffee table book called “The Art of Final Fantasy” (or some similar title), context is much appreciated. The combination of well crafted fairy tale and superb illustrations make this novella a true delight and a definite recommendation.

Can’t sleep. Time to blog. I noticed a new album, Nerd Life, by YTCracker today when I was suppost to be working. I’ve only heard the sample tracks that are available online, but if it’s like Nerdrap Entertainment System it’ll be lots fun.

Speaking of music, it’s been a good week for new albums: Skinny Puppy’s Mythmaker came out on Tuesday. And it’s good. From Skinny Puppy’s last album, The Greater Wrong of the Right (definitely my number one favourite SP album titles), I found myself only listening to two songs regularly: “Pro-Test” [video] and “Past Present”. I couldn’t get really into anything else, but that’s not an uncommon situation with this band from my experience. Ogre and cEvin slither between the lines of cacophony and melody, and it can be a rough dichotomy at times. Mythmaker seems to keep the former at bay, teasing the melody along–for the most part–through all ten tracks of the album. And it’s a different sound this time, not a remake of old glories. For a band that was formed over twenty years ago, that’s crucial. It distinguishes the group as contemporary artists that are producing Art (yep, that’s a capital A). An example of band that isn’t growing musically, is KMFDM. Everything after ADIOS, minus Schwein and MDFMK which were both new and different expressions for the group, has been more of the same. And very much so at that. Kapt’n K is putting out new songs, but it just sounds all the same. Skinny Puppy doesn’t suffer from this type of artistic bankruptcy and Mythmaker is a testiment to that claim.

Something interesting from Skinny Puppy’s MySpace (vomit) page:

Orge: “The most amazing thing that I’ve found is that people usually look outwards and project on others what they hate the most about themselves. At the core, Mythmaker surrounds the things people do, calculatingly or not, to either prop themselves up—like MySpace—or protect themselves.”

Grade: B+/A- (Just cause split grades are a big joke.)