As you know well, this book is about a story that took place in a city that reminds us of Rome, Italy, in which poor-but-warm-hearted people's life were utterly destroyed by the Men in grey of the Timesaving Bank. Translations are available in Italian(Ende himself told that "Momo" is a tribute of gratitude to Italy and a confession of love."), English, Afrikaans, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelander, Korean, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwagian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish(Spanish version and Argentine one), Swede, Thai, Turkish and Ukranian(however there were a small change in the former-communist countries), as is now regarded, just as "The Neverending Story," as one of his masterpiece.
Don't forget the movie "Momo" authorized by Ende himself. Directed by Johannes Schaaf and script written by Schaaf, Ende, Rosemarie Fendel and Marcello Coscia, the movie differs from the book in the terms that the strange man, who appears at the Author's postscript and is played by Ende himself, comes to the scene on the beginning of the movie. After "The Neverending story" movie's release Ende filed a suit against Hollywood of having "deformed" his works, losing it and being forced to pay a big amount of compensation, and when heard of "Momo" movie he tried to save his work's originality by taking part into the movie itself. I'm not sure well of the movie, however, and I'd be glad if you could me some information on the movie "Momo."
I'd like to begin this page, even in too conventional a way, by remembering how Momo came into the city.
"Aside from being rather odd, Momo's personal appearance might well have shocked anyone who set store by looking clean and tidy. She was so small and thin that, with the best will in the world, no one could have told her age. Her unruly mop of jet-black hair looked as if it had never seen a comb or a pair of scissors. She had very big, beautiful eyes as black as her hair, and feet of almost the same colour, for she nearly always went around barefoot. Although she sometimes wore shoes in the wintertime, the only shoes she had weren't a pair, and besides, they were far too big for her. This was because Momo owned nothing apart from what she had found lying around or had been given. Her ankle-length dress was a mass of patches of different colours, and over it she wore a man's jacket, also far too big for her, with the sleeves turned up at the wrist. Momo had decided against cutting them off because she wisely reflected that she was still growing, and goodness only knew if she would ever find another jacket as useful as this one, with al its many pockets."
The model city for "Momo" seems to be near Rome, and when we hear of such girls we always thinks of Gypsy ones(even I'm not sure if she really is Gypsy or not). Europeans, who think it ordinary to settle in a city or in the countryside, treat such children, with so dirty appearances and no fix house for them, as prphans and they'll be put into public orphanages in the name of social welfare, but she came out of the houses to get out of the freedom-deprived life and to live a free life. Economically-poor-but-warmheated people in the city, when they came to know her situation, they accepted her will to live in the basement room of the Amphitheater and managed to give her everything her needed to livem: tables, chairs, oven, and so on. I can't help asking myself if such hospitality, shown in the following message, is lost as we get richer or not.
"We were wondering if you'd like to move in with one of us. It's true we don't have much room ourselves, and most of us already have a horde of children to feed, but we reckon one more won't make any difference. What do you say?"
Soon after such words comes the messages that must impress all the readers. It's on Momo's marvelous talent of "listening," giving example in which she helped Salvatore(bricklayer) and Nino(owner of a small inn) stop quarelling and canarias who stop to sing start it again. What kind of influence has she given to them, by the way?
"She listened in a way that made slow-witted people have flashes of inspiration. It wasn't that she actually said anything or asked questions that put such ideas into their heads. She simply sat there and listened with the utmost attention and sympathy, fixing them with her big, dark eyes, and they suddenly became aware of ideas whose existence they had never suspected."
"Momo was staring at them wide-eyed, but neither man quite knew how to interpret her gaze. Was she secretly laughing at them, or was she sad? Although her expression have no clue, they suddenly seemed to see themselves mirrored in her eyes and began to feel sheepish."
I'm very interested tp find that both descriptions share the term "eyes." It's one of our common knowledge that eyes sparkle a sort of extraordinary energy, as monsters in the Greek myths whose eyes petrify everything that are into their gage. Japan has a custom to see talk with seeing the other's eyes as impolite(even it's changing in the recent times), while other countries(even other Eastern ones like China and Korea) think it polite, but these contrary traditions can be explained by introducing such theory and the difference is the way to see such spiritual infusion as "polite(most of the countries)" or "impolite(Japan)." Those who are engaged in listening, seeming passive, are giving away such power, Momo has a talent for it, piercing directly into their mind and giving some effect In the Chapter Three they'll enjoy an imaginary adventure to sail for an unknown ocean, and naturally such unconscious power that surges from Momo gave other children the intellectual power(the inteligence called imagination is called for building a fictional world in their brain). In fact Momo listenes so to others' stories, and she always succeedes, except the following case: "But the man in grey was far harder to listen to than anyone she'd ever heard. She could understand what other people meant and what they were like by getting right inside them, so to speak, but with him this was quite impossible. Whenever she tried to read his thoughts she seemed to plunge headlong into a dark chasm, as if there were nothing there at all. It had never happened to her before." This part proves that her spiritual energy, getting into the others' internal world through their eyes, going through their mind, reflected again from their eyes and returning to Momo's mind, and in the case of the man in grey "she seemed to plunge headlong into a dark chasm," as what she felt relfected the man's vacuum.
Next Beppo and Guido appear as her best friends, and let's see their peculiar ideas: first, Beppo.
"Beppo was widely believed to be not quite right in the head. This was because, when asked a question, he would give an amiable smile and say nothing. If, after pondering the question, he felt it needed no answer, he still said nothing. If it did, he would ponder what answer to give. He could take as long as a couple of hours to reply, or even a whole day. By this time the person who had asked the question would have forgotten what it was, so Beppo's answer seemed peculiar in the extreme." / "Beppo took as long as he did because he was determined never to say anything untrue. In his opinion, all the world's misfortunes stemmed from the countless untruths, both deliberate and unintentional, which people tould because of haste and carelessness."
This is a severe critical words for those who send information, including myself. The world-wide Internet is well settled into our dayly life, but unfortunately not all the information is based on the fact, and there's too much lies or mere misunderstandings. Unfortunately we haven't enough time to reconfirm all of them's trueness, and his determination never to bother others by lying, is worth our respect. There'd be very fewer crimes (no counterfeit or perjury) if everybody follows his principle and we'd be able to live in a more secure society, which is actually hindered by something in our heart, and we should see what the matter is.
Guido, on the other hand, makes the rare tourists believe all the lies he hits on and receives money from them, and defends himself to those who accuse him of liar:
"I'm only doing what poets do. Anyway, my customers get their money's worth, don't they? I give them exactly what they want. Maybe you won't find any stories in any guidebook, but what's the difference? Who knows if the stuff in the guidebooks isn't made up too, only no one remembers any more. Besides, what do you mean by true and untrue? Who can be sure what happened here a thousand or two thousand years ago? Can you?" / "There you are, then! How can you call my stories untrue? Things may have happened just the way I say they did, in which case I've been telling he gospel truth."
This words are typical of Latin-tempered guy which tells us to enjoy our life and who are abundant in Italy but seldon in Germany, giving us the chance to glimpse Ende's view on the economy. What do you gain from the poet in exchange for some money? By enjoying poets you can get nothing(except the matter called book at your hand), but the reason you pay for it is you seek for such act just as thirsty men look for water, and from the economic viewpoint the act of shopkeeper who gives you some water and that of the bookstorekeeper who gives you the book are identical. As to Ende's theory on economy further idea is available on "Fantasy, Politics, Arts," Guido sees his story he hits on identical to poet's works, what's important for him is to please the customers, and compared with that the trueness isn't so important. Such way of thinking and enjoying false stories is very Italian, and l suppose Ende tried to tell his countrymen such joy.
Guido goes on furthermore on his theory to doubt scientists' authority, insisting that what he believes may be true, and let's remember some cases in which what everybody believed true turned out to be false: Fossils, now recognized as carcasses of dinosaurs which lived millions of years ago, were regarded until the 19th century as creatures God failed to give life to, Galileo's Heliocentric theory, rejected and even condamned by the then-predominant Ptolemaic one, came into the commen knowledge only in the 17th century, racist-theory, which says that Blacks and Yellows are intelectually inferior to Whites, was supported even by the celebrated scientists in the 19th century(of course it's proved to be false today), which reminds us of the fact that our knowledge is not only uncomplete but also incorrect. Guido's theory, which advocates its authenticity by merely our incapacity to prove as false, goes too far, but it's true that by making ourselves believe we can enjoy making up our own imaginary ancient world and find some romanticism by doing so, and Guido is right to receive money for giving customers such joy. For instance, a new ruin was discovered in 1989 in Yoshinogari, near Fukuoka where I live, Japan, and those who visited the ruin lamented the existence of the restoration design, complaining that they'd lost their joy to make it up. What they wanted is to imagine the Ancient times' lifestyle by themselves with a couple of unearthed thinks, and they hated arqueologists to rob them of such joy. They have no photos of such era, their restoration designs are similar to visitors' one, and visitors wanted specialists to keep such joys for them.
There's a point on Guido's story. As told by Ende himself in "Talk with Ende," Russian and East-Germany version of "Momo" omits an episode: about the tyrant Marxentius Communis(evidently he's a caricature of Karl Marx and communism his theory built up)' mandate to rebuild the whole Earth again to see the same one. I'd be glad if you could give me the latest information on this story by e-mail to know how it goes today.
On the top of the Part Two an inpressive phrase appears: "Time is life(Zeit ist Leben in German)." The German word "Leben" corresponds to the English one "life," and I'd like to compare it with the common proverb "Time is money(Zeit ist Geld)."After the modern capitalism was established so many products and services have become purchasable, but not everything that concerns to our dayly life needs money. For instance, to borrow books from libraries, to enjoy chatting with your friends in a park, to capture a fish and to eat it with your family, etc... What's important here, though, is that none of these acts can be done without spending time. In case you borrow books you have to spend some time to go to the library and to choose books, in case you enjoy chat also you have to have some time, and if you go for fishing you have to spend at least a couple of hours to seize fishes and to cook them. As to the time everybody's equal in the term that both riches and poors have 24 hours per day, and by deciding how to spend your 24 hours(or 168 hours if you see a week as the life cycle) you determine your lifestyle, which is reflected in the following words: "Life resides in the human heart."
After such precious words comes the scene where "the man in grey" visits Mr. Figaro. "The man in grey" sums up Mr. Figaro's whole life with his well-trained eloquence, telling that his whole life minus all the "wasted time" is equal to zero. This is a sheer sophistry and was introduced with no regard to how such time was important to him, but "the man in grey" suggests him to "save time" and tells him how necessary it is. From then on Mr. Figaro starts doing his works as businesslike as possible without spending more time than required, to become more and more irritable. This phenomenon was spread into other habitants in the city, their life becomes "devoid of all the things that were now thought superfluous," and the example of identical houses is given here: "No architect troubled to design houses that suited the people who were to live in them, because that would have meant building a whold range of different houses. It was far cheaper and, above all, more timesaving to make them identical." It's against the consumers' demand as each of them seeks something different for their house, but it makes no sense to the goal to produce more and more houses. The "efficient" way is to build ones that matches their general preference and to sell them, which is far from realizing the residential life they desire. Ende concludes this chapter with "And the more (time) people saved, the less they had," that means they were so intent on saving they did it for what shouldn't be saved, which lead to give them a poorer life.
With adults afflicted with such poverty, a change occurres between children. "Most of the newcomers(children) had no idea how to play." The toys they have are surely expensive, but they are merely "remote-controlled tanks that trundled to and fro but did little else, or space rockets that whizzed around on strings but got nowhere, or model robots that waddled along with eyes flashing and heads swivelling but that was all," and none of them is versatile. Children take such toys on hand, follow the how-to-play to enjoy, but eventually find out what they do is nothing but being controlled by toys, which gives them a tremendous tiredness. Their parents, with more salary but less time to play with them, buy them such toys so that they'll never be fed up with, which robs them of their right of free imagination and turning them nothing but puppets. In such a situation children notice the fact that no adult wants to spend time with them, or that they are so valueless adults don't even bother to spend time, and as a result they gathered at Momo's home.
Cassiopeia, a strange tortoise, brings Momo into Professor Hora's home, and I'll quote a phrase of him that is of a great significance:
"They(the men in grey) exist only because people give them the opportunity to do so. Naturally, they seize that opportunity. Now that people are giving them a chance to rule their lives, they're naturally taking advantage of that too."
We tend to believe that we have more spare time by saving time, but in fact we do something else with such saved time, and none of it rests with us after all. Thanks to the technological advance we use less time for transportation and telecommunication, but once used to such grace we forget how precious the time we've managed to save is, and end up with spending it for other purposes, unable to spend it for our own sake. Isn't it true that our such attitude gives "the men in grey" the chance to sneak into and to steal us of the time we should use in our own way?
While Momo and Cassiopeia enjoy their own world, a big change happenes in her two best friends' lives. Guido, despite gaining the fame for his storytelling, is now obliged to do his cutthroat schedule, and ends up with breaking his resolution to start telling the same story again and again. Beppo Roadsweaper, on the other hand, askes the police to search Momo, but the police without the slightest confidence in his story treats him as a drunk or a psycho, and he was thrown into a public-run home. When Beppo was desparate to be unable to get out of there, "a man in grey" appears, tells him a lie that they'd kidnapped Momo, and robs him of one hundred thousand hours. The children who gathered near Momo also were put into the "Children Home" and were forced to do plays adults give them.
I'm interested in the social institution called "home." You may remember the "food ships" in Michel Foucault's "History of Madness," and let's be aware of this current society's tendency to control those who are totally valueless from the social viewpoint, like "psychos" or "children," by confining them in "homes." This tendency is based on the idea that their bad effect on the society can be minimized by separating them from it, and they succeed in eliminating them by detaining them. Let's see the fact, however, that those who are considered to have succeeded are in fact on the same standpoint. Guido made a big hit with his stories, which lead to a tremendous amount of business orders, and finally even his time is perfectly controlled by the secretaries. From the viewpoint of the "Time is life(Zeit ist Leben)" this is a poor but ridiculous example of a man who submitted his whole life under somebody else's control.
(mig@lime.plala.or.jp)