Fig. 1 Michael Ende was most famous for his novel “The Never Ending Story”. The book is about a fictional, parallel land of “Fantastica” being destroyed a force called “The Nothing” which is a metaphor about the real world where people are losing their imagination and falling into a mundane trap in corporate enterprises. It follows a young warrior asked by the “Empress of Fantastica” to save the land and rid it of “The Nothing”. The second protagonist is a boy from the real world reading the book of the same name and is living inside the book as it becomes real to him through anthroposophic thought. Ende was born in south Germany in a town called GarmischPartenkirchen. His father was a famous painter with gave him inspiration for creativity, he started writing when he was fourteen and had hoped to become a “dramatist” writing dramatic stories for an older generation but when he was only sixteen he was drafted into the German army and stopped writing. He did, however, abandon the army and joined an antiNazi party for the remainder of the war. After the war he decided he wanted to be a play-writer but joined an acting school in Munich in the Upper Bavarian district because he could not afford to go to college. Source: Wikipedia[1]
Ende was influenced by Sigismondo Fanti, who he claimed was “an alcoholic painter and a most eccentric and gifted man” and said he thought about him whilst creating characters for some of his books. Source: Michaelende.de[3]
Fig. 2 Because Ende was born during the war and was a teenager during the end and after the war, he was in the pinnacle times of when Germany were in the limelight from the world and when they were in essence being “brainwashed” this could be the start of the inspiration for “The Never Ending Story” as “The Nothing” which is taking over the land sounds as if it is the corporate companies and the “higher level” of society which is putting people into a rut and not giving people a chance to think for themselves. Although he wanted to be a dramatist and aim his books towards an older audience, he had most of his success writing children’s stories. The first of which was “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver” in 1960, this then spawned into a huge list of books/plays:
1960 - Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver 1962 - Jim Button and the Wild 13 1967 - Die Spielverderber (The Spoilsport) 1972 - Tranquilla Trampeltreu die beharrliche Schildkröte 1973 - Momo 1978 - Das Traumfresserchen 1978 - Lirum Larum Willi Warum: Eine lustige Unsinngeschichte für kleine Warumfrager 1979 - Die unendliche Geschichte: Von A bis Z 1981 - Der Lindwurm und der Schmetterling oder Der seltsame Tausch 1982 - Die zerstreute Brillenschlange
1982 - Die Schattennähmaschine 1982 - Das Gauklermärchen 1982 - Phantasie/Kultur/Politik: Protokoll eines Gesprächs 1982 - Die Ballade von Norbert Nackendick; oder das nackte Nashom 1984 - Norbert Nackendick; oder das nackte Nashom 1984 - Der Spiegel im Spiegel 1984 - Filemon Faltenreich 1984 - Der Goggolori 1985 - Archäologie der Dunkelheit 1986 - Trödelmarkt der Träume: Mitternachtslieder und leise Balladen 1988 - Ophelias Schattentheater 1988 - Die Jagd nach dem Schlarg 1989 - Die Vollmondlegende 1990 - Die Geschichte von der Schüssel und vom Löffel 1992 - Das Gefängnis der Freiheit 1992 - Der lange Weg nach Santa Cruz 1993 - Der Teddy und die Tiere 1993 - Der Rattenfänger: ein Hamelner Totentanz. Oper in elf Bildern 1998 - Der Niemandsgarten
Sources: Wikipedia[2]
On the 29th of August 1995 he succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of 65 in Stuttgart, Germany. His last boo “Der Neimandsgarten” was released posthumously.
The Never Ending Story The Never Ending Story is a tale about a young boy who is bullied at school and while hiding from the bullies in a book store, finds a book called “The Never Ending Story”. Unable to pay for it he steals it and reads it in the attic of his school; he is transported into the book and in this mystical changing world, Fantastica that is slowly being diminished by a force called “The Nothing”. The story progresses as Bastian, the small boy, is trying to find someone called “Atryeu” who, even at the same age as Bastian, is considered a warrior and has set off to save the land from “The Nothing”. Bastian meets a variety of people along the way and finds a gem called the ARYUN and begins to lose his mind when he wishes things with it. He finally defeats “The Nothing” with the help of Atryeu and manages to get his one true wish and cure his father of memory loss along the way, as he started to get symptoms as well. When he gets out of the book, he goes to return it to the owner to find the book however, it has vanished and the owner reveals that he has also, once before, visited Fantastica before
There are three films about the book. However only the first film is based on the book, and only the first half, whereas the two sequels are only loosed based on it.
