Show of hands—who’s seen The Neverending Story? Okay, great. Now, who’s actually read the book?
An 80s children’s classic, chances are you’ve seen the movie or at least heard of it. And if you’re a child of the 80s like me, it may very well have a treasured place in the corner of your heart reserved for your favorite childhood nostalgia. While I loved the movie as a kid, it was only years later as an adult, when I chanced to pick up a copy of the book at my local library, that I learned there’s far more to the story than what I saw on the screen.
Sometimes all it takes for a book to hook us is a sentence. A phrase, a passage, or simply an idea that latches onto our minds and won’t let go. For me, that moment came a third of the way into the book, when Gmork tells Atreyu the secret of what happens to Fantasticans who are sucked through the Nothing into the human world.
“That’s right—and when you get to the human world, the Nothing will cling to you. You’ll be like a contagious disease that makes humans blind, so they can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. Do you know what you and your kind are called there?”
“No,” Atreyu whispered.
“Lies!” Gmork barked.
It was this moment when I first realized that The Neverending Story isn’t simply an imaginative tale; it’s a tale about the nature of imagination itself. What it means for us as humans to dream, to hope, and especially to wish.
Wish fulfillment becomes a huge theme in the second half of the book. The main character, a human boy named Bastian, is given a great gift: a gem called AURYN with the ability to grant any and all of his wishes. On the back of AURYN is inscribed a single line: Do What You Wish. Armed with the gem, Bastian sets off to do just that. But what he eventually finds is that doing what you wish isn’t nearly as simple or easy as it seems.
Don’t be fooled into thinking this is merely a children’s fun adventure tale. Through Bastian, Michael Ende explores adult themes such as power—its usage, consequences, and ability to corrupt; freedom, and what true freedom really requires; the power of names, including issues of identity and memory; and the journey we all take to discover our heart’s true desires. As the great lion Grograman says:
“Only a genuine wish can lead you through the maze of the thousand doors. Without a genuine wish, you just have to wander around until you know what you really want. And that can take a long time.”
Is this not true of all of us at some point?
I often look back fondly on books I read in the past, recalling how much I enjoyed this one or that, but without really remembering much about them. Not so with this book. When I think back on The Neverending Story, I recall the haunting conversation between Atreyu and Gmork about the nature of human fantasy; the dark side of AURYN as it slowly steals Bastian’s memories away even as it fulfills his every wish; and the hopeful moment Bastian pulls an image of the father he forgot from the Picture Mine. For these scenes are embedded with ideas about the human experience, and this is what ultimately makes this story not just worth reading, but worth remembering.
This article was originally published May 28, 2015 as part of our That Was Awesome! series
Margaret Fortune wrote her first story at the age of six and has been writing ever since. She lives in Wisconsin. Her first novel, Nova, is available from DAW.
I did the same thing you have by reading this book as an adult several years ago. For me the book was an instant classic. It was interesting to see the way in which they pulled certain elements from the various acts of the novel to create the sequel to the movie as well. However, I recall thinking when I read the book that bastion was a significantly less likable character than he was on the screen. He was often selfish and made poor choices. I actually feel after reading your article I need to revisit this book. It’s been a decade since my last and only read through.
Off topic somewhat but whatever – Earlier in the year there was a great article on tor trying to rank the best 80’s fantasy films and it was well timed in that I did not know what to get for my cousin’s upcoming birthday, so I settled on the very best of cheesy 80’s Fantasy DVD’s (great nostalgia and you can get a lot of them quite cheaply). Writing up a list gave me too many to choose from so I split them into two categories – those set entirely in a fantasy world and those that start in the ‘real’ world the first set were the birthday present and the second set have just been given to her for christmas.
Birthday – Ladyhawke, Conan the Barbarian, Beastmaster, Red Sonja, Willow, Dragon Slayer, The Dark Crystal and Excalibur (It should include Legend as well but only the international bluray version has the appropriate musical score and Saskia does not have a bluray player).
Christmas – Princess Bride,The Neverending Story (both articled on tor today), Labyrinth, Time Bandits, Return to Oz, Flight of Dragons, Highlander and Big Trouble in Little China.
Good pair of collections no?
I never saw the movie, but read the book earlier this year (as an adult). I loved the part with the Night Jungle and Many-Colored Desert, and the giant turtle, and the gateway thingies. Unfortunately, I had already read the Keys to the Kingdom books, and thus snickered at every mention of “Nothong.”
Being German, I read the book as a child, long before I ever watched the movie. I love it and agree with all your points, but could never get into the movie – it just seemed terribly bland and shallow by comparison.
I’ve read ‘Neverending Story’ as a child. It opened not only the door to fantastic genre literature for me, but to books in general. Books like ‘Neverending Story’ are the reason I read. Won’t ever forget the time with the book. :)
It is indeed a wonderful classic, I actually read as a kid some 2 years before I heard a movie was in the making, and had all the geeky hangups about how they changed the character names for the American viewers and so on :-) I should really read it again with adult eyes.
Another book on a boy given wishing power and not knowing what to do with it which I loved is “Kaytek the Wizard” by Janusz Korczak. I have no idea how much this wonderful author is known to English speakers, but I highly recommend seeking out his books.
I read this book first when I was around 11 and it was probably the single most influential book on my life and it turned me on to reading like no other piece of fiction. I remember when the film came out and I was hugely disillusioned – they only filmed half of it! I haven’t seen the film since but the book I have read many times and it never fails to impress me hugely. It is an under-rated masterpiece in the English-speaking world I think and this is probably because of the film, which has some charm but very little depth.