14: Deep Thoughts About The NeverEnding Story

November 28, 2023

The Nothing, depressed horses, and dead moms–The NeverEnding Story! (Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh…)

For this week’s episode, Emily shares her deep thoughts with Tracie about the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story, a childhood favorite with seriously dark undertones. She talks about how the original story was written as an anti-authoritarian fairy tale by a German survivor of the Third Reich, why she still gets goosebumps when the Childlike Empress knows about the children watching the film, and the surprising fact that Emily and Tracie’s father considered taking a hammer to their VHS copy of this film in the 1980s. Though neither the special effects nor the gender representation holds up, there is still much to enjoy in this allegory of grief that taught GenX that riding a luck dragon is the best revenge.

Throw on your earbuds and join us in the school’s attic as we play hooky and overthink The NeverEnding Story.

Mentioned in this episode:

What we can learn from the Neverending Story: authoritarianism, fascism, and the power of imagination

He Named Her “Moon Child”

Michael Ende

Wolfgang Petersen

Aleister Crowley’s novel Moonchild (1917)