“The first time Wednesday saw a flag she had to look away, unsure whether to laugh or cry. Patriotism had never been a huge Muscovite virtue, and to see the way the fat woman in the red pants held on to her flag as if it were a life preserver made Wednesday want to slap her and yell Grow up! It’s all over! Except it also felt like…like watching Jerm, aged three, playing with the pewter pot containing Grandpa’s ashes. Abuse of the dead, an infection of history.”

Source: Iron Sunrise (2004), Chapter 17, “Set Us Up the Bomb” (pp. 277-278)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Charles Stross 211
British science fiction writer and blogger 1964

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