The Monstrefact: Gmork from "The Neverending Story"

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the monstrous wolf Gmork from Michael Ende’s 1979 novel “The Neverending Story” and its 1984 film adaptation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamban. This is the Monster Fact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. Like
a lot of people from my generation, the nineteen eighty
four film The Never Ending Story has a special place
in my heart. While full of escapist fantasy and fun,

(00:33):
it also challenged me in a way that most other
Family films just didn't, pushing the boundaries of what I
was capable of processing at a young age. From the
trials of the Swamp of Sadness to the terrifying menace
of Gomork the Great Wolf, an agent of the power
behind the Nothing. As you'll remember, Gomork appears as a

(00:54):
great wolf much like the Norse fin Rear, capable of
speech and reasons sent by his mysterio is benefactors referred
to as the manipulators in the original nineteen seventy nine
novel by Michael Inda To Kill the hero a Tray
realize through practical effects like the Luck Dragon foulcre there's
just a tangible threat to the creature, and we experience

(01:16):
this a nihilistic hatred and oozes off the screen. Now
it would be many, many years before I finally read
the novel for the first time with my own child,
by the way, and it has become one of my
all time favorites. The events of the film only encompassed
the first half of the novel, and as is almost
always the case, the book explores its various concepts with

(01:37):
greater depth and nuance. For example, we learn much more
about Gomork and his mission. Gomork is a werewolf, but
one that differs significantly from the common folklore and horror
movie creature. In the world of humans, he has a
human form. In the world of Fantasia, the world of
human fantasy, he has a wolf's form, but he is

(01:58):
neither and is a creature with no world of his own.
As such, he is driven by spite and hatred for
humans and Vantasians alike quote because you creatures had a
world and I didn't. Furthermore, we learn that his aid
to the manipulators is more general. He's not merely the
chosen assassin of a tray you, but their agent in

(02:19):
a grand scheme to better control human beings of the
mundane world. When Fantasians fall into the nothing, they are
not annihilated. Instead, they're reborn in the human world as
quote delusions in the minds of human beings, fears where
there is nothing to fear, desires for vain, hurtful things,
despairing thoughts where there is no reason to despair. It

(02:44):
just gives me chill bumps to think about that. The
pure joy of creativity and dream when psycled through the nothing,
through the machinery of manipulation, becomes almost pure psychic trauma
for human beings. As I've watched my own child grow up,
as I reflect on mind my childhood, I feel that
I find myself holding on as hard as possible to

(03:05):
the bits of fantasia in myself, in those I love,
because I can observe, like all of you can observe,
the way our human capacity for creativity is so often
co opted into anxiety and negative thought patterns, into conspiracy
thinking and embellished hatred. Make no mistake, the manipulators are

(03:25):
hard at work in our world, personifications of the more
harmful aspects of contemporary culture, technology, and politics, and the
gomork In spirit continues to hunt our fantasies and dreams.
Maybe on some level even with just the film. We
children of the eighties and nineties understood this, We saw

(03:47):
the threat. We saw a true adversary in Gomork, one
whose menace would not become completely clear till much later
in our lives. Again, I cannot recommend Indas The Never
Ending Story highly enough. It's such a great book and
it speaks to all ages and reveals much. If you're
a fan of the film, well, you've got an entire

(04:10):
additional half novel on top of that story. And if
you never cared for the film you found it lacking
in one way or another, I would say, don't let
that stand in your way of checking out the original book,
because it is just one of a kind. It's absolutely amazing,
all right. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact,
The Artifact or Animalius Dependium each week. These are short

(04:31):
form episodes that we air in the Stuff to Blow
Your Mind podcast feed, and they will also show up
in video form on Netflix. As always, you can email
us at contact It's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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