Storytime 2025-02-23: The Neverending Story Begins
It’s finally time to start Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story (English translation; the original’s in German). I’ve been teasing it for so long that some people may have thought it was the Never-Beginning Story!
Many people are probably familiar with the movie from the 1980s, which more or less adapts the first 12 chapters of the book’s 26. The book is better, and then there were the movie sequels, and there was an animated series.
It’s the story of a boy whose only talent is making up stories, and in his life (as in most of the world today) that isn’t a very appreciated talent. The first part of the book has a more familiar theme: don’t be afraid to be creative and be yourself. The second part is a less-familiar mirror image of that: stay grounded or you can lose yourself. People like Bastian have to walk that tightrope if they’re going to inspire the real world with the spark of imagination that it so badly needs, and that certain people want to extinguish or coopt.
But at any rate, we’ll start tomorrow, with Bastian Balthasar Bux’s fateful meeting with grumpy bookshop owner Carl Conrad Coriander.
The “Early” Stream for our friends in the UK, Europe, etc.:
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10 p.m. EST / 7 p.m. PST / 3 a.m. (the next day) GMT/WET
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