The Monstrefact: Gmork from "The Neverending Story"

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 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

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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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.