Michael Ende's The Neverending Story

[luc]

It may be true that the movie doesn't include much of the novel itself (I've never read it), but I watched the movie as a pre-school kid many times at my grandmother's place and it touches me to this day. So even though Ende rebelled against it, I think it still fulfilled some kind of purpose for the very young generation.

Thanks, data, I don't remember the Never Ending Story movie well, whereas the movie "Momo" made a deep impression on me when I was a kid. It pretty much sticks to the novel as well. So yes, it's a good thing that they made the movies.

However, I encourage you to read both books if you find the time - there are so many great things in there that could never make it to a movie and I find it to be much more "deep" (for lack of a better term) to let your imagination produce the images and form all sorts of connections to your knowledge. And it is great fun!

 

[Thomas Alan]

I saw the movie, maybe 10-15 years ago. One thing that I enjoyed was how the boy cherished reading as something of his own that could not be touched by the pressures of the world. Not a escape, really, but moments to be treasured experiencing for himself other worlds, adventures.

I learned to read in school, of course, but mostly followed the prescribed material until I was about 11. One day I realized that I could read anything I wanted to. My first choice was Stories from the Twilight Zone. From there to science fiction, literature, history, on and on. Moments of my own, joy of learning and fun, forming my own thoughts in difficult world.

Another message I took from the movie, and in the book which I am just starting to read, was the essential importance of the reader in the story. Without the reader there is no story, books are only paper with ink stairs on them. The story occurs within the reader, shaped by experience, state of mind and emotion at the time, and level of being.

Looking at reading this way shifts the attention 180 degrees from the book to what is experiencing it. A being is taking in the information, coded by the ink stains, and story is born in his/her being.

I am loving the book, the world of Fantastica threatened with extinction, Bastian's world and his experiencing of Fantastica, and my creation of both levels in my own being.

Mac

 

[Psalehesost]

Having just finished it today, the book has definitely touched me deeply.

Bastian's journey reminded me of the ponerization of my past - how I sank into quite wrong ideas and my mind and emotions became warped. In retrospect I saw in each stage of his descent an analogy for a theme of what went on in me in one or another period of my life.

A number of other things struck me, including before and after this part of the story as well. And near the end of the story, it acted, together with some other reading and reflecting, and the surfacing of a memory (following sleep and a dream that kind of began to stir it) of an aspect of myself I'd forgotten - and focusing on this memory of myself, I began, not due to its intrinsic contents but because of something else, to cry loudly.

Almost unprecedented - and wholly in the given context - given how distant I've generally been to my emotions (not by conscious choice) since the end of my childhood.

 

[Alana]

Thank you to all who recommended this book. I just finished it recently and it was fantastico! ;)

Another message I took from the movie, and in the book which I am just starting to read, was the essential importance of the reader in the story. Without the reader there is no story, books are only paper with ink stairs on them. The story occurs within the reader, shaped by experience, state of mind and emotion at the time, and level of being.

I had this thought as well, Mac. And I also connected it with what Wilson says in his book Redirect about the stories of our own lives. Sometimes we keep 'immature' impressions of our stories even when we have matured enough and we could go back and see everything anew, from a different perspective. Like Bastian, all he could see were his limitations and what made him unhappy in his life, when there was so much more going on that he was missing by limiting his perceptions.

Another thing that impressed me with the story was the way it made me feel about Bastian: when he was acting selfishly and getting his due (as things usually go) I wasn't feeling sorry for him but felt this urgency inside for him to wake up and see himself as I could see him, see how hurtful his actions were. I was then contemplating that if younger readers get the same feeling from the book, it might help them to see how our actions in general affect the well-being of those around us, but also get them to look in themselves and start to become more aware of their own selves and how they are perceived, compared to how they think they are. An important nudge in the direction of learning to know ourselves. Or so I think.

 

[Aliana]

Another thing that impressed me with the story was the way it made me feel about Bastian: when he was acting selfishly and getting his due (as things usually go) I wasn't feeling sorry for him but felt this urgency inside for him to wake up and see himself as I could see him, see how hurtful his actions were. I was then contemplating that if younger readers get the same feeling from the book, it might help them to see how our actions in general affect the well-being of those around us, but also get them to look in themselves and start to become more aware of their own selves and how they are perceived, compared to how they think they are. An important nudge in the direction of learning to know ourselves. Or so I think.

I just finished reading it as well - thank you all for recommending it. I had not seen the movie in a long-time, so the book was completely fresh.

What was so interesting was to follow the progression of his maturity as he goes from wishing for everything he lacked back home, to his realization that there were far reaching consequences to even good intentioned wishes. And finally to wishing to learn to know how to love - what a perfect metaphor for waking up to what is real.

 

[luc]

Bastian's journey reminded me of the ponerization of my past - how I sank into quite wrong ideas and my mind and emotions became warped. In retrospect I saw in each stage of his descent an analogy for a theme of what went on in me in one or another period of my life.

Oh, the same for me... I actually read the book together with my girlfriend (we read it out aloud to each other) and we both cried several times, without even knowing why exactly... It somehow deeply touched experiences from my ponerized path and made me feel emotions from my childhood and the disturbed person I later became...

Almost unprecedented - and wholly in the given context - given how distant I've generally been to my emotions (not by conscious choice) since the end of my childhood.

Again, very similar for me... While I read this book, it felt like reclaiming in part the rich emotional life one has as a child. Ende reflects on this in "Zettelkasen" as I said above:

Currently, I'm reading "Zettelkasten" by Michael Ende, which is a collection of some of his writings and essays he left when he died. (I don't think it is available in English.) Amazing stuff!

It turns out that Ende was arguing for a "re-marriage" of science and mysticism, that he was into the paranormal and argued that spiritual realms must exist... He said one of the last "reservations" of truth is the realm of children literature, which is allowed to a certain degree by the otherwise hostile materealistic society to grow the children's souls, but just to separate them completely from the "fantastic world" when they become adolescents.