The Neverending Story (Unendliche Geschichte)

If you are a fan of wacky fantasy or postmodern literature, this is a must-read!

About the Author

This classic children’s fantasy novel was written in 1979 in German, by author Michael Ende. Ende was a famous children’s writer, who was heavily influenced by surrealism from a young age, as his father Edgar Ende was a painter.

From his author website, Michael Ende, “believed it was necessary to reconnect the disparate threads of modern life in a new poetic mythology for the contemporary age. In line with the romantic tradition, his quest for the magic word was a search for a story that would conjure the essence of the world as we know it.” 

The Book vs. the Movie

The first third of the book is basically exactly like the 1984 movie, up until the end. Bastian is bullied, runs into a book shop, and steals the neverending story to read in his school attic instead of attending class.

Slowly, the reader is drawn into Bastian’s experience of reading the book while Bastian is being drawn into the story he is reading. In fact, the lines between the real and fictional world are increasingly blurred to the degree that when one of the characters is looking in a mirror, he sees Bastian through the mirror in the school attic.

The main difference between the book and the movie is when Bastian calls out the Child Empress’ name it is only the beginning of his adventures. After that, the story becomes increasingly meta, and bizarre. Yet, the author has a purpose in this.

Post-Modern Literature or Surrealism?

Is The Neverending Story post-modern? I would have to say yes.

I liked how one blog explained post-modern literature: “Parody and pastiche serve to highlight the self-reflexivity of Modernist and Postmodernist works, which means that parody and pastiche serve to remind the reader that the work is not “real” but fictional, constructed.”

While in the world of the story, Bastian tells stories which become true.

Also, at different points a character in the story recounts “The Neverending Story,” starting with the moment Bastian walks into a book store. At that moment, Bastian is in the story, listening to a story about him discovering the story (which he is now in). I had to chuckle at Ende’s mind games.

On the other hand, this story is also heavily influenced by surrealism, which “can be defined as an artistic attempt to bridge together reality and the imagination. Surrealists seek to overcome the contradictions of the conscious and unconscious minds by creating unreal or bizarre stories full of juxtapositions.”

This story is incredibly meta and pokes fun at itself throughout. The main character, Bastian, who is reading a story, gradually becomes a character in the story. Yet, because he comes from the real world, he is able to invent and create in the fictional world. This is where the story becomes truly bizarre, as a child begins to dictate the course of the narrative and affect the makeup of Fantastica.

Yet, as he discovers, Bastian is still bound by the rules of the world. For instance, like others in Fantastica, he can only meet the Child Empress once. He also only has true power to create when holding the Empress’s medallion, a power which belongs exclusively to the story and not him.

You can see the increasing blur between reality (represented by Bastian) as he encounters a world of imagination (Fantastica). Interestingly enough, the more time he spends there creating, the more he loses touch with the “real” world.

Yet, Bastian must spend time there, for Fantastica is in danger of being lost.

Imaginary Things Become Lies

How Ende talks about the residents of Fantastica is also interesting. They are all created and named by those outside their world. They rely on the imagination of real people for their continued existence.

Yet, Fantastica is in jeopardy because people have stopped visiting the world of imagination. To become its savior, Bastian must find a way to bring knowledge of it back with him.

However, if the creatures in Fantastica were to ever enter the real world, they would become lies. And by the second, as Bastian continues to create in Fantastica, he loses more of himself.

You’ll have to read the story to find out more!

It is very difficult to describe how fun this book was to read and the trip it took me on in a single blog, but I have tried. 🙂

If you enjoy wacky, creative fantasy, especially the kind that makes you think deeply, this is the book for you!