Ukraine: One Man’s Chernobyl 20 Years On · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Stefan at Dykun writes about a Ukrainian relative who was sent to work in Chernobyl 20 years ago: he's in his 40s now but walks with a cane. “Mykhajlo wears what must count as the thickest glasses ever worn by a human being–they should definitely find a place in a Museum of Strange and Unusual Medical Devices, such as we have here in Minneapolis. He told me that his eyes are slowly “melting.” He said that he feels like his internal organs are slowly decaying, changing form, and becoming something like a moosh of organic flesh without distinctions. He is becoming a body without organs (but not in the liberating sort of way that certain poststructuralists have celebrated). He says that at some point his body will prematurely just stop working and become a body without organs and without a soul, without a life. It could be soon, or it could be in a while. “