Wenders once said in the words of a writer in "Under the Berlin Sky": "If I give up, human beings lose the people who tell their stories. Once they lose their stories, they also lose their childhood."
Claire's indulging in this device (instrument) is actually indulging in her own past, her own nightmare. And Eugene's novel about the future rescued Claire.
Storytelling preserves the past and records history, and it must be scarred; but storytelling also imagines the future, hides revelation, and breeds hope. Claire's sinking into the past symbolizes the decay of our (human) history, the erosion of memories, and the pain and exhaustion. Sam's writing about the future rescues Claire (human beings) from the depression of the past, brings her hope and strength, and makes the time between the past and the future more reflective and more vivid. Both are indispensable, Claire inspires Sam's writing, the past feeds the future, the past makes the future reflective, the past breeds the future, and the storytelling is the present.
Wenders' previous road films focused on the pursuit and self-recognition of individuals on their journeys, while "Until the End of the World" proposed a grander proposition: the relationship between art (storytelling), individuals, and humanity as a whole.
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