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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamban. This is the Monster Fact,

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Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

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Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. Like

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Speaker 2: a lot of people from my generation, the nineteen eighty

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Speaker 2: four film The Never Ending Story has a special place

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Speaker 2: in my heart. While full of escapist fantasy and fun,

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Speaker 2: it also challenged me in a way that most other

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Speaker 2: Family films just didn't, pushing the boundaries of what I

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Speaker 2: was capable of processing at a young age. From the

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Speaker 2: trials of the Swamp of Sadness to the terrifying menace

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Speaker 2: of Gomork the Great Wolf, an agent of the power

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Speaker 2: behind the Nothing. As you'll remember, Gomork appears as a

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Speaker 2: great wolf much like the Norse fin Rear, capable of

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Speaker 2: speech and reasons sent by his mysterio is benefactors referred

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Speaker 2: to as the manipulators in the original nineteen seventy nine

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Speaker 2: novel by Michael Inda To Kill the hero a Tray

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Speaker 2: realize through practical effects like the Luck Dragon foulcre there's

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Speaker 2: just a tangible threat to the creature, and we experience

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Speaker 2: this a nihilistic hatred and oozes off the screen. Now

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Speaker 2: it would be many, many years before I finally read

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Speaker 2: the novel for the first time with my own child,

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Speaker 2: by the way, and it has become one of my

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Speaker 2: all time favorites. The events of the film only encompassed

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Speaker 2: the first half of the novel, and as is almost

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Speaker 2: always the case, the book explores its various concepts with

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Speaker 2: greater depth and nuance. For example, we learn much more

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Speaker 2: about Gomork and his mission. Gomork is a werewolf, but

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Speaker 2: one that differs significantly from the common folklore and horror

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Speaker 2: movie creature. In the world of humans, he has a

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Speaker 2: human form. In the world of Fantasia, the world of

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Speaker 2: human fantasy, he has a wolf's form, but he is

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Speaker 2: neither and is a creature with no world of his own.

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Speaker 2: As such, he is driven by spite and hatred for

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Speaker 2: humans and Vantasians alike quote because you creatures had a

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Speaker 2: world and I didn't. Furthermore, we learn that his aid

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Speaker 2: to the manipulators is more general. He's not merely the

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Speaker 2: chosen assassin of a tray you, but their agent in

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Speaker 2: a grand scheme to better control human beings of the

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Speaker 2: mundane world. When Fantasians fall into the nothing, they are

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Speaker 2: not annihilated. Instead, they're reborn in the human world as

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Speaker 2: quote delusions in the minds of human beings, fears where

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Speaker 2: there is nothing to fear, desires for vain, hurtful things,

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Speaker 2: despairing thoughts where there is no reason to despair. It

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Speaker 2: just gives me chill bumps to think about that. The

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Speaker 2: pure joy of creativity and dream when psycled through the nothing,

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Speaker 2: through the machinery of manipulation, becomes almost pure psychic trauma

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Speaker 2: for human beings. As I've watched my own child grow up,

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Speaker 2: as I reflect on mind my childhood, I feel that

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Speaker 2: I find myself holding on as hard as possible to

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Speaker 2: the bits of fantasia in myself, in those I love,

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Speaker 2: because I can observe, like all of you can observe,

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Speaker 2: the way our human capacity for creativity is so often

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Speaker 2: co opted into anxiety and negative thought patterns, into conspiracy

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Speaker 2: thinking and embellished hatred. Make no mistake, the manipulators are

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Speaker 2: hard at work in our world, personifications of the more

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Speaker 2: harmful aspects of contemporary culture, technology, and politics, and the

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Speaker 2: gomork In spirit continues to hunt our fantasies and dreams.

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Speaker 2: Maybe on some level even with just the film. We

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Speaker 2: children of the eighties and nineties understood this, We saw

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Speaker 2: the threat. We saw a true adversary in Gomork, one

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Speaker 2: whose menace would not become completely clear till much later

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Speaker 2: in our lives. Again, I cannot recommend Indas The Never

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Speaker 2: Ending Story highly enough. It's such a great book and

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Speaker 2: it speaks to all ages and reveals much. If you're

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Speaker 2: a fan of the film, well, you've got an entire

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Speaker 2: additional half novel on top of that story. And if

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Speaker 2: you never cared for the film you found it lacking

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Speaker 2: in one way or another, I would say, don't let

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Speaker 2: that stand in your way of checking out the original book,

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Speaker 2: because it is just one of a kind. It's absolutely amazing,

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Speaker 2: all right. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact,

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Speaker 2: The Artifact or Animalius Dependium each week. These are short

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Speaker 2: form episodes that we air in the Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 2: Your Mind podcast feed, and they will also show up

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Speaker 2: in video form on Netflix. As always, you can email

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Speaker 2: us at contact It's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app

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Speaker 1: podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows