Wednesday, 6 January 2021

"A Text In Job"

"The Problem of Pain."

Poul Anderson often either quotes from or refers to the Bible and we have set out to note every such quotation or reference but have consistently missed a highly significant one. First, please note:

The Bible In General
 
Specifically, The Book Of Job
Blog Search Result For Job iv. 12-16 (Scroll down)
 
Now, after all that, the concluding two paragraphs of "The Problem of Pain":
 
"'Maybe you can find a text in Job. I don't know, I tell you, I don't know.'
"The sun lifted higher above the burning horizon." (p. 48)
 
In this dramatic conclusion, Poul Anderson:
 
refers to Job;
does not quote from that book;
instead, invites his character and maybe also his readers to do so!
 
So let's find a text in Job.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I also thought of how Anderson quoted from Job at the beginning of THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, capped with an apt quote from Kipling at the end of the book. And of how he had "Caruith" ingeniously using the Bible to bend the puppet Prophet Jaan to Aycharaych's will.

Ad astra! Sean