RE: How "The Nothing" From The NeverEnding Story Demonstrates Apophatic Theology And An Explanation Of The Nature Of God
Allan Watts is a great thinker. I love every lecture I could find of his. I think I finally fully understand the never ending story:
spoilers
The nothing represents his coming to adulthood as his mind is beginning to form clear foundations in what is real and what is not. The rock is no longer a talking rock that eats smaller rocks in his backyard, the rock is becoming simply a rock and his imagination is in a sense is dying. At the ending of the movie, he embraces his imagination though as he begins to realize that fictional stories can be as real as nonfiction if he produces a physical manifestation of the fiction (as seen with him shouting her new name.) So the book he was reading was in reality blank, it always was blank and what intrigued the boy in the beginning was not the pages that he began to read but the combination of why the bookstore owner was reading it and what the symbol on the front meant.
Great analysis.
The story is filled with symbolism and layers of meaning.
The Auron -- the symbol on the cover of the book -- is a version of the Ouroboros, or snake eating its own tail, which symbolizes wholeness or infinity.
Many layers, both personal and symbolic and cultural. And if I remember correctly, the author of the book was actually an insane German circus performer.