How The Neverending Story inspired me to write: Part 10

As I said earlier, people tend to focus singularly on this particular line for the meaning of the story, and the meaning of The Nothing itself:

G’mork: It’s the emptiness that’s left. It is like a despair, destroying this world.

…which still makes sense, even this far into the tale. As The Nothing approaches, time and time again we’ve seen its victims fall into nihilistic despair.

But there’s additional context surrounding G’mork’s line that suggests The Nothing is more than just a cloud of despair.

FACING THE BEAST

G’mork warns Atreyu that if he comes any closer, he’ll rip him to shreds.

The great beast, smug in his stature, knows he’s already won. Atreyu is unarmed, weaker than him, and The Nothing quickly approaches from all angles. G’mork’s task is almost complete.

But when G’mork tells Atreyu he’s going to eat him, Atreyu warns he’s a warrior who will not die easily.

G’mork chuckles and says:

G’mork: Brave warrior? Then fight The Nothing.
Atreyu: But I can’t! I can’t get beyond the boundaries of Fantasia.

To that, G’mork laughs heartily as the landscape begins to crumble around them.

Of course a warrior can’t fight nothing anymore than strong, stone hands could prevent The Nothing from taking away Tiny and the Nighthob.

Atreyu had been given an impossible mission from the start. The conversation continues:

Atreyu: What’s so funny about that?
G’mork: Fantasia has no boundaries.
Atreyu: That’s not true! You’re lying!
G’mork: Foolish boy. Don’t you know anything about Fantasia? It’s the world of human fantasy. Every part–every creature–is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries.

Let those words sink in a moment.

No matter how brave or strong or cunning a warrior Atreyu is, there’s no way he could’ve gotten beyond the boundaries of Fantasia. Another impossible task.

G’mork is saying Fantasia is the world of human imagination. Every landscape, every character we’ve seen so far, from the Rock Biter, to Morla the Ancient One, to Atreyu himself, are products of human imagination.

The only exception to this rule might be G’mork himself.

So who would imagine Atreyu as the main character of this story? Bastian would, who had this very character stitched on his backpack.

Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then?
G’mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So The Nothing grows stronger.

G’mork speaks of all humans. All imaginations. But the story in this book right now is specific to Bastian. Bastian’s world is getting swallowed up by The Nothing because he has begun to lose his hopes and forget his dreams.

This is all that remains of Bastian’s fantasy world. Bastian, who suffered through depression after the loss of his mother.

Atreyu: What is The Nothing?
G’mork: It’s the emptiness that’s left. It is like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.

The Nothing is the emptiness that’s left.

The characters Bastian have been reading about will never come to be if he continues to wallow in his depression. If he can’t get over his mother’s death and falls into a mundane life, he will never one day write about the Rock Biter, about Atreyu, about Engywook and Urgl. He won’t be able to share that with the world.

And if he stays on this path and never writes these stories, if he never lets his imagination run free, these characters, his Fantasia will never come to be. Instead, he will create nothing.

The Nothing is the tragedy that’s left over. It’s the empty legacy of a creative who never got around to creating.

And this nothing has been spreading through his creative mind ever since the death of his mother. Being uncreative has been erasing his potential future.

Bastian must get past his own despair, or the very characters he could one day create will get swallowed up in it, too.

But a dark question remains: Why is G’mork trying to “help” The Nothing spread?

Atreyu: But why?
G’mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has the control has the power.

It’s like G’mork is a demon who wants to destroy the creativity of mankind. He wants to encourage the spread of The Nothing in every human’s Fantasia.

Who wants to control people by stealing away their hopes and dreams? Who craves power for power’s sake?

There’s been a subtle subtheme of “hive minds” throughout this story. The hive mentality of mundane life. The three bullies operating as a single unit. The children in math class obediently sitting in line. Bastian’s father in his corporate job. Ygramul the Many, a being made up of insects who all share a hive mind. The people of Fantasia’s panic and ignorance in the face of The Nothing, to the point where they have hung all their hopes on a singular young boy.

That is why G’mork must hunt down Atreyu – to rob Fantasians of their last hope. And by extension, turn humans into sheep that consume soulless content and never create.

Atreyu: Who are you, really?
G’mork: I am the servant of the power behind The Nothing. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped The Nothing.

The only one who could have stopped The Nothing. (Hint: He’s not talking about Atreyu.)

I believe that G’mork is a servant of Satan. He was sent to kill Atreyu, but more than that, he was sent to kill Bastian’s hopes and dreams.

This is why G’mork is so terrifying to adults and children alike. He is the demon that wants you to fail. He’s the one who dissuades you from creating. He is the reason you procrastinate on your creative endeavors. And the longer he holds you back, the more The Nothing will spread over the stories you would have told.

Atreyu may seem like he’s just another character in Bastian’s story, but aside from being the main character, he represents Bastian’s inner resilience and bravery. Bastian’s “inner-Atreyu” is one of the only things preventing him from crumbling into a miserable heap, letting the despair of his mother’s death take over.

Therefore if G’mork were to murder Atreyu, he would be that much closer to destroying Bastian’s creative future. The only hurdle remaining would be the Childlike Empress herself.

Book vs. Movie: In the book, G’mork works for a group called “The Manipulators” who seek to control the human race. But if you ask me, any clandestine group or governmental body who wishes to control the populace is just another middleman for the Devil himself.

A DOOMED QUEST

And so, finding a human child was impossible for Atreyu from the start. As was reaching beyond the borders of Fantasia, and even giving a name to the Childlike Empress.

Atreyu cannot name the Empress because he’s not creative. Atreyu is a storybook character. He is a creation, not a creator.

And asking Atreyu to speak to a human child would be akin to asking an NPC in a computer game to somehow be aware of the computer monitor, look beyond it into the real world, and speak directly to the player at the keyboard in a meaningful way.

Atreyu’s tasks were all next-to-impossible.

But that doesn’t mean he’s going down without a fight.

Atreyu: If we’re about to die anyway, I’d rather die fighting! Come for me G’mork!

G’mork pounces on Atreyu, only to wind up at the receiving end of his makeshift knife.

With G’mork now slain, there’s a small glimmer of hope for Bastian’s future.