Confronting The Nothing: The True Ethical Of The NeverEnding Story – OpEd

By Jon Miltimore

Once I was seven, my class was taken to an auditorium in our elementary faculty. There was a projector within the room, and we packed in on the ground, criss-cross applesauce, with kids in different lessons. The lights have been turned off, the projector started to roll, and a film performed.

I’m undecided why I keep in mind that day so clearly. Possibly as a result of it was the primary time I’d ever watched a film at school, or maybe as a result of it was the film we watched: The NeverEnding Story.

I’ve at all times thought of The NeverEnding Story to be probably the most imaginative kids’s motion pictures ever made. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the movie, which turns 40 subsequent yr, was a field workplace hit, raking in $100 million on a $25 million price range. That is one motive I used to be stunned not too long ago once I requested a roomful of individuals in the event that they’d seen the film, and most had by no means heard of it.

That’s a disgrace, as a result of the movie will not be solely pleasant, however carries a message younger individuals desperately want right now. However I’m getting forward of myself.

The NeverEnding Story begins with a younger boy named Bastian discovering a mysterious guide in a bookstore after he takes flight from a bunch of bullies who’ve a passion for throwing shy youngsters into dumpsters. After arriving late to highschool, Bastian decides to skip class and begins to learn the guide in a secluded (and considerably creepy) storeroom at his faculty.

That is when issues get attention-grabbing. The film switches to a story-in-a-story format, with Bastian (briefly) studying in voiceover a few land referred to as Fantasia that’s beneath assault from a mysterious drive referred to as The Nothing. Quickly the voiceover stops, and the perspective switches to a boy named Atreyu, a warrior tasked by the Empress of Fantasia to find what The Nothing is and find out how to defeat it.

Not lengthy after, Atreyu rides off on his horse Artax (*sniff*) to start his quest, and shortly viewers start to comprehend that the traces between Fantasia and Bastian’s actuality aren’t what they appear, and we start to sense that Bastian’s involvement is essential to saving Fantasia (and maybe himself).

This final half was at all times essentially the most attention-grabbing a part of The NeverEnding Story. Although the movie is filled with visually beautiful landscapes, accommodates a beautiful rating, and is filled with journey, it’s the blurring of traces between fiction and actuality that leaves viewers considering after the film is over.

And the blurring traces don’t finish with Bastian, Atreyu, and Fantasia.

‘It’s Like a Despair, Destroying This World’

I’ve watched The NeverEnding Story no less than two dozen occasions in my life. (Earlier than you start to assume I’ve points, I ought to point out I’ve three kids.) And in some unspecified time in the future I started to comprehend (or suspect) what The Nothing is.

The Nothing, as talked about, is a drive that’s consuming Fantasia—however it’s unclear precisely how.

Early within the film, we encounter a number of characters on their method to the Ivory Tower—dwelling of the Empress, the ruler of Fantasia—who be taught they’re all touring to the identical place, for a similar motive: The Nothing is destroying their dwelling.

Although we be taught from the characters that The Nothing is destroying their houses, the strategy is imprecise. An enormous rock-creature referred to as Rock Biter explains to his fellow vacationers, together with a dwarf named Teeny Weeny who rides a racing snail, how all of the scrumptious rocks in his land started to vanish.

Rockbiter: Close to my dwelling, there was once a fantastic lake. However then… then it… it was gone. 

Teeny Weeny: Did the lake dry up? 

Rockbiter: No. It simply wasn’t there anymore. Nothing was there anymore. Not even a dried up lake. 

Teeny Weeny: A gap? 

Rockbiter: A gap can be one thing. No, it was… nothing. And it bought greater, and greater. First there was no lake anymore, after which lastly… no rocks.

Quickly after this dialog, viewers quickly get a glimpse of The Nothing, which seems as a violent storm that sucks up every part in its path. Rock Biter and his pals are in a position to escape (for now), however it’s unclear at this level what this mysterious drive is.

We quickly get a greater description, nonetheless.

A Seek for Which means

After Atreyu has traveled throughout one facet of Fantasia to the opposite attempting to find what The Nothing is and find out how to defeat it, he comes throughout G’mork, a wolf-like villain who admits he’s attempting to assist The Nothing.

G’mork explains that Fantasia is a land of human fantasy made up of the hopes and desires of individuals on a distant planet, and Fantasia is dying as a result of people are starting to lose hopes and overlook to dream. That is the gasoline of The Nothing, we’re informed. Then Atreyu asks G’mork the million greenback query: “What’s the Nothing?”

G’mork’s response is telling. “It’s the vacancy that’s left,” the villain replies. “It’s like a despair, destroying this world.”

As a result of the traces between Fantasia and Earth are blurred, it’s clear that the despair G’mork describes exists in each Fantasia and earth, and a better take a look at the movie suggests they stem from the identical supply: nihilism.

Broadly outlined, nihilism is the whole rejection of non secular and ethical rules, and the idea that life has no that means.

The Nothing is mainly a metaphor for nihilism. It’s a drive that represents the consuming despair of people who find themselves dropping not simply their hopes and desires however their that means. The movie hints that it is a situation that now afflicts Fantasia.

When Atreyu lastly will get by the Swamps of Unhappiness (get it?) and meets Morla, the Historical One, he doesn’t discover what he expects. As a substitute of discovering a smart being who can inform him what The Nothing is and the way he can defeat it, Atreyu discovers a large turtle-like creature in want of Prozac. Removed from being useful, Morla is cranky and so depressed he actually desires to die.

“Die? Now that, no less than, can be *one thing*,” he tells Atreyu.

We have now a clue as to why Morla is so depressing. Although smart, Morla has no sense of that means. A lot of his solutions to Atreyu are prefaced with the road, “Not that it issues, however …”

This can be a soul steeped in nihilism. And regardless that Morla is aware of a means to assist Atreyu defeat The Nothing, Morla refuses—as a result of he says nothing issues. Solely after Atreyu methods the depressed turtle—”That’s not true. If it didn’t matter to you, you possibly can inform me”—does Morla inform the intelligent younger warrior that the Southern Oracle holds the reply he wants.

‘Individuals Who Have No Hopes Are Straightforward to Management’

It doesn’t take a doctorate in philosophy to comprehend that nihilism is a recipe for unhappiness. Friedrich Nietzsche warned concerning the risks of nihilism greater than a century in the past. Nietzsche could have famously declared God useless in 1882, however the thinker anxious that God’s (metaphorical) dying left a critical chasm within the universe: find out how to discover that means in a world stuffed with struggling.

Nietzsche’s answer to this downside was for man to deal with his very existence as “a murals,” which might create worth and that means in his life. That is good recommendation, so far as it goes. Life is a present and ought to be lived as if it have been a murals.

The Neverending Story, nonetheless, exhibits the answer might not be so easy. (It’s additionally price noting that Nietzsche himself went mad in 1889, supposedly after watching a horse being abused by its proprietor on the street.)

It’s necessary to keep in mind that The Nothing will not be the one menace in Fantasia. As talked about above, G’mork is a creature in its service, and his purpose is to cease Atreyu from finishing his quest.

Not like The Nothing, G’mork is a mortal creature. He’s flesh and blood. So why is he attempting to assist this harmful drive? What does he stand to achieve? The film provides us a transparent (and telling) reply.

G’mork explains to Atreyu (whose identification he doesn’t but know) that he’s “the servant of the ability behind the Nothing” and that he was despatched to kill the warrior who may cease it. Atreyu asks him why he would do such a factor.

“As a result of individuals who haven’t any hopes are straightforward to manage; and whoever has the management… has the ability!” G’mork replies.

The movie is telling us that there are forces on the earth that need individuals in despair. That need individuals weak. That need individuals dependent and hopeless. As a result of individuals with out hope and desires are simpler to manage, and people who find themselves simply managed pose no menace to these in energy.

Nietzsche’s answer to discovering worth in life was for the person to dwell life prefer it’s a murals, however nihilism—like The Nothing—has its servants. And these servants (wittingly or not) see people enhancing their lives by their free alternative and unbiased motion as threats.

If you happen to doubt this, contemplate how many individuals (and who) are hostile to people taking on a regular basis steps to enhance their very own lives. Issues so simple as figuring out, waking up early, and self-help are attacked, as are individuals who name out the corrosive affect of presidency dependency.

Nietzsche may need believed that taking management of 1’s life and turning it into a fantastic tapestry was the antidote to nihilism, however thinkers like Jordan Peterson who’ve preached such a message have discovered themselves focused.

There’s a present of postmodernism that sees individualism as foolish, and a distraction from insurance policies “that will give the working class way more materials safety.” But The Neverending Story hints that true individualismis what has the ability to defeat The Nothing.

Close to the tip of the film, when the traces between our world and Fantasia start to crumble, and The Nothing has swallowed nearly every part, the Empress explains to Atreyu that Bastian has the ability to cease it.

Then why doesn’t he do one thing? Atreyu replies.

“He doesn’t perceive that he’s the one who has the ability to cease it,” the Empress says. “He merely can’t think about that one little boy could possibly be that necessary.”

He ‘Who Does Not Really feel His Personal Value’

Almost 40 years after watching The Neverending Story at school, its message is lastly clear to me.

A handful of postmodern philosophies—nihilism, pessimism, and materialism, chief amongst them—are destroying our world, as a result of they’re destroying our that means.

Essentially the most terrifying problem Atreyu faces in Fantasia is the sphinx, who we’re informed will strike down anybody who tries to move “who doesn’t really feel his personal price.” The parallel in our personal world couldn’t be extra clear; authorities information present suicide reached a document excessive in 2022.

Thankfully, the ability to cease the despair the Nothing brings exists. It can’t be defeated by a military or a authorities program, however it can be defeated by the Particular person.

Solely people can assume and motive and act. Solely people have the ability to create artwork and life and wonder, and it’s by this that we create that means in our lives (and a extra stunning world for others).

That is what the Empress means when she tells Atreyu that solely Bastian has the ability to cease the Nothing.

The facility to defeat its despair exists in every of us, and place to begin is to acknowledge that life is a present and worthy of being handled as a murals.

In regards to the creator: Jonathan Miltimore is the Editor at Giant of FEE.org on the Basis for Financial Schooling.

Supply: This text was printed by FEE