“After Mao, not even Pol Pot came as a surprise. Sadly, he was a cliché.”

—  Clive James

Essays and reviews, Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time (2007)
Context: The full facts about Nazi Germany came out quite quickly, and were more than enough to induce despair. The full facts about the Soviet Union were slower to become generally appreciated, but when they at last were, the despair was compounded. The full facts about Mao's China left that compounded despair looking like an inadequate response. After Mao, not even Pol Pot came as a surprise. Sadly, he was a cliché.

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Clive James 151
Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator an… 1939–2019

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