Michael Ende's The Neverending Story
Oh, you think you know this story? You can sing the theme song and draw the luckdragon's nostrils, no problem? You think because you've seen the movie - that means you have full knowledge of what's in this book? Lord have mercy! Girl...you crazy! You just don't even know!
In 1983, the guidance counsellor at my Jr. High School spotted me reading like a fiend and struck up a friendship with me. He had originally planned on teaching English, but like many things in life - shit changed. A ravenous reader himself, he exposed me to many fine volumes of literary wisdom but none stood out any greater than his original copy of The Neverending Story.
I was eleven years old. The book is written in two different colors - green for Fantastica (not Fantasia, they changed it for the movie), and red for the real world. Each chapter begins with an astounding color plate of a single letter - illustrated all to hell and including scenes from the upcoming chapter. Not only that - the damn things are written in alphabetical order! My budding OCD was so happy about this book even before I'd read the first word.
Why would a book/movie as popular as this one make it onto the "Unappreciated" blog? It's simple: the movies suck when compared to the book. Not that it's a bad movie by any means - Lord knows, I've watched it thousands of times and still chuckle when Falcor groans - it just pales in comparison with the experience you get from reading the novel. For this reason - I included this in the blog. It's important that people realize this story doesn't end the way they think it does. What if someone told you The Wizard of Oz doesn't actually end with Dorothy returning to Kansas but rather - prior to her return, embarked on an entirely new adventure - just as long and involved as the plot to kill the witch? You'd get excited, right? That's exactly the situation with The Neverending Story. If you've seen the movie and never read the book ... you've only heard half of the story.
This is important because the second half of the book kicks major ice. Warner Brothers actually filmed two sequels to the original movie - I apologize if you're one of the eighteen people alive who actually saw those films - but they are horrible representations of what happens in the book. So many elements were screwed with in order to adapt this book into a screenplay - what's left to watch is like a half-breed, dirty-cousin of the original tale. This is frustrating, so you must go read this book at once. Michael Ende wrote several amazing novels but none (to me) shine brighter than this one. (However; Momo is pretty damn hot - so if you like this, try that one next. It's bizarrely-delicious).
The story doesn't end with Bastian being given a single grain of sand from the Childlike Empress but rather - Bastian uses that single grain of sand to create an entirely new Fantastica! The imagery and adventure that happens in the second half of the book is unmatched in fantasy fiction. It's a horrible shame that Ende never went further with this saga, but then again - he really didn't need to. It's all here. A perfectly encapsulated fantasy - this book stands alone as one of the premier examples of the genre ever penned.
The first half of the novel is pretty much what you get in the original film. Lots of extra subplots are tweaked for good movie-making, but the bulk of the plot is sound. You're not really missing too much. You'll quickly realize how little of this (fairly thick) novel in your hands was used for the film
- and smile a little. It's what happens next that makes the book so much better. When Bastian (the child from the real world) meets and joins the hero from the first half of the book - actively diving into the story itself, that things become beautiful.
Bastian is given "the gem" which allows him to create things of permanence from his imagination, new Fantastica. The catch is - the more wishes, the more of his own memories of home disappear. Atreyu realizes this and leads a rebellion against Bastian as he begins a search for his True Will. Things get really twisted and philosophical over the final one hundred pages. I could break it down, but it would ruin it for anyone who hasn't actually read it. It does, however; have a happy ending - where Bastian returns to the real world, redeems himself to his father and closes with one of the greatest closing lines in all literary history.
"This is another story and shall be told another time..."
In 1983, the guidance counsellor at my Jr. High School spotted me reading like a fiend and struck up a friendship with me. He had originally planned on teaching English, but like many things in life - shit changed. A ravenous reader himself, he exposed me to many fine volumes of literary wisdom but none stood out any greater than his original copy of The Neverending Story.
I was eleven years old. The book is written in two different colors - green for Fantastica (not Fantasia, they changed it for the movie), and red for the real world. Each chapter begins with an astounding color plate of a single letter - illustrated all to hell and including scenes from the upcoming chapter. Not only that - the damn things are written in alphabetical order! My budding OCD was so happy about this book even before I'd read the first word.Why would a book/movie as popular as this one make it onto the "Unappreciated" blog? It's simple: the movies suck when compared to the book. Not that it's a bad movie by any means - Lord knows, I've watched it thousands of times and still chuckle when Falcor groans - it just pales in comparison with the experience you get from reading the novel. For this reason - I included this in the blog. It's important that people realize this story doesn't end the way they think it does. What if someone told you The Wizard of Oz doesn't actually end with Dorothy returning to Kansas but rather - prior to her return, embarked on an entirely new adventure - just as long and involved as the plot to kill the witch? You'd get excited, right? That's exactly the situation with The Neverending Story. If you've seen the movie and never read the book ... you've only heard half of the story.
This is important because the second half of the book kicks major ice. Warner Brothers actually filmed two sequels to the original movie - I apologize if you're one of the eighteen people alive who actually saw those films - but they are horrible representations of what happens in the book. So many elements were screwed with in order to adapt this book into a screenplay - what's left to watch is like a half-breed, dirty-cousin of the original tale. This is frustrating, so you must go read this book at once. Michael Ende wrote several amazing novels but none (to me) shine brighter than this one. (However; Momo is pretty damn hot - so if you like this, try that one next. It's bizarrely-delicious). The story doesn't end with Bastian being given a single grain of sand from the Childlike Empress but rather - Bastian uses that single grain of sand to create an entirely new Fantastica! The imagery and adventure that happens in the second half of the book is unmatched in fantasy fiction. It's a horrible shame that Ende never went further with this saga, but then again - he really didn't need to. It's all here. A perfectly encapsulated fantasy - this book stands alone as one of the premier examples of the genre ever penned.
The first half of the novel is pretty much what you get in the original film. Lots of extra subplots are tweaked for good movie-making, but the bulk of the plot is sound. You're not really missing too much. You'll quickly realize how little of this (fairly thick) novel in your hands was used for the film- and smile a little. It's what happens next that makes the book so much better. When Bastian (the child from the real world) meets and joins the hero from the first half of the book - actively diving into the story itself, that things become beautiful.
Bastian is given "the gem" which allows him to create things of permanence from his imagination, new Fantastica. The catch is - the more wishes, the more of his own memories of home disappear. Atreyu realizes this and leads a rebellion against Bastian as he begins a search for his True Will. Things get really twisted and philosophical over the final one hundred pages. I could break it down, but it would ruin it for anyone who hasn't actually read it. It does, however; have a happy ending - where Bastian returns to the real world, redeems himself to his father and closes with one of the greatest closing lines in all literary history.
"This is another story and shall be told another time..."
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