Notes  
  Neuromancer. Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books, 1984.

  Medieval Drama. Kinghorn, A.M. Medieval Drama (Literature in Perspective Series). London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1968, pp. 113-114.

  Wislawa Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature. This poem was taken from the article announcing the award in the New York Times, October 4, 1996.

 

Job 38:26. The verses are:

  1. "Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a way for the thunderbolt,
  2. to bring rain on a land where no man is,
    on the desert in which there is no man;
  3. to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
    and to make the ground put forth grass?" -- Revised Standard Version.

Earlier, Job has complained that he doesn't deserve what's happened to him. Here's the beginning of the response, from Chapter 38:

  1. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
  2. "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
  3. Gird up your loins like a man,
    I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
  4. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
  5. Who determined its measurements -- surely you know!
    Or stretched the line upon it?
  6. On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone,
  7. when the morning stars sang together,
    and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

It continues in this wise for four more chapters, after which Job repents:

  1. ...Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me, which I did not know... (Chapter 42)

and the Lord gives everything back to him, "twice as much as he had before." Happy ending:

  1. And after this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.
  2. And Job died, an old man, and full of days. (Chapter 42)
  Galway Kinnell, When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990, p. 11.
 
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