SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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Momo
What Else Are You Reading?
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"Momo" by Michael Ende (BR)
I've been wanting to read this for years, ever since I read the book and saw the movie of The Neverending Story, the author's most famous work. Though that didn't work for me, I sensed that something else by the author would, and so I want to try this. I hope I find it easy to love... but... if I get stuck: You, my buddies, are going to help me to find the value in it. :)
Mod
Cheryl, for me, the main difference between the two books is that Momo really is a story for all ages, The Neverending Story is in my view more a story for children or middle grade. From Momo you can take something away at every age, and each time it's different.
So - who's reading the English version and who's reading in German? I am going to be reading the German original and I'm very interested in how you all like the translation, so if you are reading in English, I would love to read your favourite quotes to compare them!
I'd love to join but I don't know if I can squeeze the physical book in this month, I'm thinking about listening to the audiobook. Has anyone listened to the german audiobook? Can you recommend it?
I’m planning on listening to the German audiobook and maybe alternating with the (German) hard copy. I read it perhaps 25 years ago, so I’m excited to discover it again. Not sure when I can start though....
I'll be reading hardcover in English. I'll be sure to bookdart any quotable bits.
I'll be lurking here, because I'm so curious to see how people like it. I read the book last year for the first time. It was my son's school reading and he read it aloud to me, which was lovely.
How old was your son?
When he read it to me he was 12 yrs.
Mod
I've never heard of this book before, and I still love The Neverending Story, which I read as a kid. I just looked and there is a Hebrew version, so curious how come I never discovered it when I basically lived in the library back then.
Either way, got the English version now and very curious.
I've got an English translation in ebook format and a paper copy from the library - Polish translation (from German). I'm going to switch between the formats as usual. I have never heard about this book before, so I was really surprised when I found not one but two copies in my library. And I work with kids. It may be a hidden pearl. I'm very curious and ready to read.
Just got the audiobook, but I‘ll probably won‘t have time to start until tomorrow. Has anyone started yet? 😊
I will start in about five hours probably... my bedtime read tonight.I hope my expectations aren't too high... I'm actually pretty excited.
I just started part 2; yesterday I read part 1 and thought it's a cute children's tale, but now I am in ch7.. very relevant even today.
@Anat: yes, that was my thought as well. Considering how old the book is, the topic is still so important today (I'd say even more important than at the time it was written).
Also this random quote “They’ve got gadgets that can do anything these days.” Girl, you have no idea 😆If the kids weren’t playing outside in make believe instead of video games or interacting through texts, I could’ve sworn this was written more recently than... almost 50 years ago 🤯
Mod
I am reading an edition with illustrations by the author and they are really cute.
Chapter 1: (not a spoiler, just a picture)
(view spoiler)
P. 69, a fair bit into part two. Reminds me a bit of other fables for all ages, like The Little Prince or The Phantom Tollbooth, for example. To name two of my favorite books of all time. At this point I suspect I won't love this quite as much, as it's not subtle, but I'm glad you all are reading it together with me; I'm sure we can dig deeper.Yes, the illustrations are charming... but too few!
Ok, I’m going to interrupt Cage of Souls again to listen to this. I might alternate with eye reading it because we have it.
p. 154, middle of chapter 13... getting deeper, richer... even a bit more challenging....
I hope the grey men develop ... it seems that they're rather superficially portrayed. Not sadistic, but just plain selfish? I think I must be missing something (besides what we're told about them, something metaphorical or literary...).Is anyone reading this in German?
Or anything besides English?
They represent a personification of... that which sees human beings as human "ressources", to be used, and what makes people think life needs to objectified and used, used for advancement, utility, efficiency - men become cogs in society's machinery, hamsters running in wheels, eyes always on the goal - never living, never pausing, never in the here and now, never listening to each other, enjoying each other, sharing a useless thing such as mutual affection. They represent pure, cold, and heartless rationality in which all whimsy, irrationality, kindness, and artistry have been rationalized away, sacrificed at the altar of perfectionism and efficiency.
Yeah, see, I'm hoping this is going to be more subtle than that. I mean, most people are not purely heartless nor purely whimsical.The book just seems a little too long and interesting to be a fable or fairy tale, but does seem to make the distinction between the two modes of life as strong as any 'good vs. evil' or 'black vs. white' tale ever was. And yet the 'bad guys' are gray... so, I'm not sure yet what to think.
Ambition isn't necessarily a bad thing. A quest for the security of a savings account isn't, either. But Ende lumps all efficient practices together, it seems to me....
Cheryl wrote: "P. 69, a fair bit into part two. Reminds me a bit of other fables for all ages, like The Little Prince or The Phantom Tollbooth, for example. To name two of my favorite boo..."Exactly what I thought.
I've read 8 chapters so far, and I'm reading fragments to my husband out loud. He is a Visual Practitioner who used to work for business but stopped because he wasn't comfortable supporting companies using people as resources or disposable tools. He was stunned by how well chapters 6 and 7 expressed what he felt.
I am listening to and rereading this in German. The language is beautiful and clever and funny sometimes. I love the diversions of Gigi’s stories in the first half (I’m on page 80 or so). I see the gray men as caricatures or representations of a certain reprehensible type like insurance reps or Human Resources. Of course something more subtle might have been well, more subtle but this is a book for tweens. The gray men appeared when the notion of wasting time vs. saving time became a commodity.
More thoughts as I progress through the book.
Yeah, it would be nice if companies that treat people like resources were going the way of the dinosaur but I don’t think we’re there yet and so what the grey men represent still speaks to us. That the grey men are gray (I can’t decide how to spell it!) and not some other color or black is the perfect choice. They are not pure evil, as black often represents, but lacking in any nuance whatsoever. Neither good nor evil, just pursuing their single minded purpose as a creation of our own making. They take all the fun stuff away, anything that make our lives vibrant and vivid and makes it gray and dull.
Mod
Chapter 5:
(view spoiler) That's something I hand't realized as a child or teen. But it makes total sense, I mean, he had the GDR right there. Incidentally, I suspect the largest group of people born and raised in Germany who didn't read the book, are people born in the GDR who were too old for children's books in 1990. I remember those books only slowly coming to our library during the 90s, I first read Momo when I was a very young teen.
Chapter 8:
I found it kind of funny that the name of the doll was "Bibigirl" (at least in German), since one of the most famous Youtubers over here, who does make-up tutorials, shopping "hauls" and general life updates(?) is named Bibi.
Overall, reading this book again gives me a warm feeling, like coming home to a friend. My review will definitely be biased.
Ines wrote: "Thank you for your posts, Diane! I wholeheartedly agree.Chapter 5:
[spoilers removed] That's something I hand't realized as a child or teen. But it makes total sense, I mean, he had the GDR right..."
I totally missed that! I was listening while driving. I will go back and read the chapter again.
I've just found a beautiful video on how Spirited Away explores very similar themes, really worth watching:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkxR1...
I missed the bit in Chapter 5, too.In English we meet Lola, the Living Doll, who wants the mink coat etc.
Mod
Listening to the audio (in German) and at 1.5x speed at first I thought Bibidoll was “Baby-doll”, because it sounds very similar (to the way Germans say Baby), which is definitely reminiscent. When did people start using “Baby” in German (in place of Kleinkind)?
Cheryl wrote: "I missed the bit in Chapter 5, too.In English we meet Lola, the Living Doll, who wants the mink coat etc."
I switch between English and Polish translations and I've read this chapter in Polish. It's translated as Lalka Bibi - Doll Bibi. It made an obvious connection to Barbie in my mind because Barbie (Lalka Barbie) in Polish sounds very similar.
And I've totally missed that stab at communism too. After Ines has pointed that out I see grey men a little different now. I remember spotting a suspicious-looking, sad man, noting something in a notebook here and there, and that my mother and other adults seemed not to spot him or others like him. Now I understand who they were and how dangerous the situation was (my mother was a member of the Solidarity movement and my father was making copies of anti-government pamphlets using the copy machine in the library he has been working in).
Eva wrote: "I've just found a beautiful video on how Spirited Away explores very similar themes, really worth watching:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkxR1..."
Oh, I know what I'm going to rewatch next :)
Wow, Aga, how terrifying.
Mod
Aga, that wasn't at all what I was referring to, but I totally see it!
I've heard a lot of stories like that. Funny enough, to me it doesn't sound terrifying, or rather, it does, but ... with a lot of "well, that's just how it was back then".
My grandparents had a small business selling and repairing heating, sanitary systems etc. And my grandmother still tells the story of how they had applied for a telephone for the office for years (because you couldn't just buy one, but they needed to know, for example, when the heating in the school wasn't working). They never got one. But after my parents had officially applied for emigration from the GDR, suddenly there was a truck full of phones in front of my grandma's office and they could chose one. When she tells the story she always goes: "...and then I was stupid enough to ask if we could have one for the apartment as well and the guy giving them to me was super happy about it! And from then on, I always closed the door to the hallway when we had guests." (Now we laugh about it.) They had the phones taken apart after reunification and of course they were bugged.
Anyway, I was talking about one of the stories Gigi tells, (view spoiler)
Ah, that one. I remember laughing at the names in those stories, but it literally must have gone in one ear and out the other without lodging itself.
DivaDiane wrote: "Wow, Aga, how terrifying."Thankfully no one from my family was ever arrested. I think the library had to suspect something because my father was sent to work as a teacher in a little village and we had to move from the city for about 6 years. The funny thing is from the child's perspective (I was 4) it wasn't scary at all. Mysterious is the best word here. And spending childhood in a little village but still close to the city where my grandparents live was bliss. Spending my days like Momo and her friends at the beginning of the book.
Ines wrote: ".Aga, that wasn't at all what I was referring to, but I totally see it!"Woah, so you were talking about Gigi's story. There is a funny thing, I couldn't find it and misunderstood what you were talking about because I was looking in the Polish edition and... The name of the tyrant was changed! It's Maksenciusz zwany Krwawym - Maxentius called the Bloddy. I checked when the book was translated - 1978... I need to reread some chapters in English, because who knows what else the censorship has cut out or changed.
But anyway, after you mentioned it, something has switched in my mind and I've started to see the whole story differently. Chapter 13 was terrifying when I was reading it from this new point of view. After the collapse of communism in Poland, we had a lot of movies, books, etc. about this kind of method.
Mod
Wow, that is so interesting to learn! I'm reading the original German edition, but now I have to go and do some research on if it was ever published in East Germany and if so, where I can get the text.
Mod
Such fun*, how casually we talk about censorship like that in our past, while people now stand in the middle of a street yelling about how they are not allowed to say anything anymore and are just left alone.
*that's sarcasm
Ines wrote: "Found it! The book was published in the GDR, but Gigi's story about the tyrant was cut completely.Such fun*, how casually we talk about censorship like that in our past, while people now stand in..."
This is so interesting!
I found a little fragment from chapter 13 that is different in the Polish edition. After a phone call from a grey man, it is Gigi who puts down the phone. And instead of feeling like a "traitor", he feels like a "lier". It changes the perception of the scene slightly.
And for some reason in chapter 15, the secretary wants to contact "Towarzystwo Filmów Propagandowych - Propaganda Films Society" instead of "the film community". I wonder what it was in German.
I think the Polish translation is closer to what it's implied to be in German - in German it's "Public Films" society - using the English words, so film community is clearly the wrong translation. At most I would have changed it to "Films for the Populace" Society.
Oh these comparisons are so enlightening! Thank you.Now, in English, if I'm looking at the right scene in 13, Guido/Gigi hangs up the phone and feels like a fraud and a hoaxer. Hmm.
And in 15, the publicist secretary wants to use Fantasy Films, Inc. So, nothing about propaganda or even government, but rather a private enterprise. Again, hmm....
Oh, I love BRs. I've learned a lot more about the book reading this way. And comparing translations gives an interesting historical perspective.I finished and I'm thinking about the review, but it is 5 stars for me. I'm going to recommend this book to kids and parents but I think it's this kind of book which is suitable for all ages. Can be read as a therapeutic story, I think.
It is lovely to follow the comments here, thanks so much to everybody involved. I'm glad to see that the book stroke the right chord for some of you. My son still thinks back lovingly to his read and complains with every new school read that it isn't as good as Momo was.
My audio book had a postlude, and I missed who wrote it, but it explained a little about how Ende came to write Momo (after he moved to Rome) and how he felt he couldn’t have written this story while living in Germany. Did anyone else see this?
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