I hate the idea of cruelty. I wouldn't even wish to torture a torturer. Cruelty is superstition. It says there's a finite amount of evil in the world, and the more evil you inflict on others, the less evil will remain to be inflicted on you. Of course, the opposite is true.
Cruelty is a muscle.
The magnifying glass you held above the unsuspecting ant as a child gave you some idea of what it would be like to be a malevolent God. But finally you were forced to concede that belief in the possibility of a truly evil God was as cruel as any cruelty you could inflict. Your earth shifts in relation to the sun, and you glass is always double-sided. Many of Australia's literary critics may consider Richards persona non grata, but he is beginning to create a quiet cult following with his unusual bent towards philosophic irony and his affinity with the obscure nature of post-modernist writing. It is an unusual trait in an Australian writer and could very well explain the resistance he is experiencing.