The first book I ever read in German that wasn’t a translation was Michael Ende’s Die unendliche Geschichte, known in English as The Neverending Story. Although it’s considered a children’s book, it has enough interesting ideas and scenarios to hold the interest of an adult fantasy fan. Its main characters are children, and the language is less difficult than the average adult novel, but that doesn’t keep it from being a fascinating read.

I’m aiming this article largely at our German discussion group sponsored by the Portsmouth Library, und ich sage bedingungslos: Die unendliche Geschichte ist ein sehr spannender Roman. Viel spannender als SchnarchenSchäfchenwolkenhimmel und nicht zu schwer. Oh, sorry, back to English.

A movie was made of it in 1984. Ende didn’t like it. It has some scenes that live up to the book, which is saying a lot. As a whole, though, it fails. It stops about halfway through the novel and tacks on a nonsensical ending. The most gripping or frightening scenes from the book are omitted or toned down.

Making a decent movie out of the novel would be a very difficult task. The book is recursive. Bastian, the protagonist, is reading the same book that we’re reading. At one point in the novel, the same book is being written by one of the characters. The better editions of the book use two ink colors, one for what happens in Bastian’s world and one for the events in the land of Fantasia. Indeed, Bastian…

“I should mention,” the blogger interrupted, “there will be spoilers here. I think that’s allowed for a novel which has been out for decades, but stop reading now if you don’t want to see them. I should also mention that I’ve read the novel only in German, so I can’t comment on the quality of the translation. It changes the dragon’s name from Fuchur to Falcor, if the movie follows it. Perfectly understandable.”

What was that voice? Anyway, Bastian enters the book and the land of Fantasia. In the second half, which the movie left out, he meets Atreju, the hero he has been reading about.

The novel’s theme is the relationship between real life and fantasy. In the first half, we learn that Fantasia is dying because people have stopped believing in it. A “Nothing” is popping up everywhere, making places and creatures disappear. Soon everything will be gone. The Childlike Empress sends Atreju, a courageous and resourceful boy, to find a remedy. He learns that the only way to save Fantasia is for a human child to enter it and give the Empress a new name. The child is the one who is reading Atreju’s adventures — that is, Bastian.

In real life, Bastian is a weak, overweight boy who is a target for bullies. His refuge is reading. A lot of people in fandom will see something of themselves in Bastian. He ducks into a bookstore to flee his pursuers and steals the book on an impulse. It seems the book was meant for him, but he’s frightened by his own act. He hides in the school attic to read it, staying there overnight. In Fantasia, he is a god. His wishes come true. However, the place is a trap, and he comes close to literally losing himself in the book.

One of the adult characters expresses the theme of the novel: “There are people who never come to Fantasia; and there are people who can but who remain there forever. And then there are a few who go to Fantasia and turn back again. And they make both worlds sound.” We must have imaginary worlds but not lose sight of the real world. This theme, as I mentioned in my previous book discussion, is similar to the one of Piranesi.

I’ve read the novel at least three times and love it. Ende has two other well-known novels, Momo and Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wuschpunsch, called Night of Wishes in translation. Momo is nearly as good as Die unendliche Geschichte; Terry Pratchett’s Thief of Time has some interesting resemblances to it, and Ende’s Gray Men are similar to Pratchett’s Auditors. Wunschpunsch is fun to read too.

Ende participated in anti-Nazi resistance toward the end of World War II, when he was a teenager. His early novel Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer conveys an anti-Nazi message in a fantasy setting.

The movies The Neverending Story II and The Neverending Story III, by the way, are awful,

This makes four book discussion posts on a regular schedule. Watch for the next one next Monday. It will be mostly about Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods and bring in at least one other book of his.