I knew someone in high school who had a hard cover copy of the book with the design, and inside at one particular point the text changes color as it describes everything. No spoilers, if you’ve read it you know. I don’t recall if the movie had that exact scene. Also don’t know if every copy of the book does that, but being what it was, it was surreal, as it was meant to be.
Aight, lemme grab a few. I’ll try and add a little context in-text. Unfortunately, most of em are long, passages rather than quotes I guess. [Some spoilers]
But wishes cannot be summoned or kept away at will. They come from deeper within us than good or bad intentions. And they spring up unannounced.
I love how much the Auryn is grounded in deep symbolism - touches on a variety of traditions.
[Inside the Auryn] When he opened [his eyes] again, he saw that he was in a vaulted building, as large as the vault of the sky. It was built from blocks of golden light. And in the middle of this immeasurable space lay, as big as the ramparts of a town, the two snakes.
Atreyu, Falkor, and the boy without a name stood side by side, near the head of the black snake, which held the white’s snake’s tail in its jaws. The rigid eye with its vertical pupil was directed at the three of them. Compared to that eye, they were tiny; even the luckdragon seemed no larger than a white caterpillar.
The motionless bodies of the snakes glistened like some unknown metal, the one black as night, the other silvery white. The havoc they could wreak was checked only because they held each other prisoner. If they let each other go, the world would end. That was certain.
The whole conversation with the Gmork is golden, but requires more context, so Imma end this wall of text with the conversation with the lion.
Bastian had shown the lion [Grograman, the Many-Colored Death] the inscription on the reverse side of the Gem [Auryn]. ‘What do you suppose it means?’ he asked. '“DO WHAT YOU WISH.” That must mean I can do anything I feel like. Don’t you think so?
All at once Grogramann’s face looked alarmingly grave , and his eyes glowed. ‘No,’ he said in his deep, rumbling voice. ‘It means that you must do what you really and truly want. And nothing is more difficult.’
‘What I really and truly want? What do you mean by that?’
It’s your own deepest secret and you yourself don’t know it.’
‘How can I find out?’
‘By going the way of your wishes, from one to another, from first to last. It will take you to what you really and truly want.’
‘That doesn’t sound so hard,’ said Bastian.
‘It is the most dangerous of all journeys.’
‘Why?’ Bastian asked. ‘I’m not afraid.’
‘That isn’t it,’ Grograman rumbled. ‘It requires the greatest honesty and vigilance, because there’s no other journey on which it’s so easy to lose yourself forever.’
‘Do you mean because our wishes aren’t always good?’ Bastian asked.
The lion lashed the sand he was lying on with his tail. His ears lay flat, he screwed up his nose, and his eyes flashed fire. Involuntarily Bastian ducked when Grograman’s voice once again made the earth tremble: ‘What do you know about wishes? How would you know what’s good and what isn’t?’
The conversation with the oracle, the Childlike Empress meeting the The Old Man of Wandering Mountain, Artax can talk, honestly I’ll just start spoiling major stuff if I don’t stop here. Obviously I recommend the book, hah.
I used to read it once a year. It has like half a dozen of my favorite quotes.
I know. Mine is the hardcover with the two ink colors, bound in leather with two snakes biting each other’s tails embossed on the cover.
But that is another story, and shall be told another time.
I knew someone in high school who had a hard cover copy of the book with the design, and inside at one particular point the text changes color as it describes everything. No spoilers, if you’ve read it you know. I don’t recall if the movie had that exact scene. Also don’t know if every copy of the book does that, but being what it was, it was surreal, as it was meant to be.
Like?
Aight, lemme grab a few. I’ll try and add a little context in-text. Unfortunately, most of em are long, passages rather than quotes I guess. [Some spoilers]
I love how much the Auryn is grounded in deep symbolism - touches on a variety of traditions.
The whole conversation with the Gmork is golden, but requires more context, so Imma end this wall of text with the conversation with the lion.
The conversation with the oracle, the Childlike Empress meeting the The Old Man of Wandering Mountain, Artax can talk, honestly I’ll just start spoiling major stuff if I don’t stop here. Obviously I recommend the book, hah.