A wonderland for wolves: A sociography of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Abstract

I was writing about the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone when the global pandemic of Covid-19 hit. Everywhere I looked news articles crowded with infographics of the infected made me suspicious of spheres: curves needed flattening. No matter where I turned for information there were human shapes in rings marking distance. I was disturbed by how often the phrase ‘what goes around comes around’ popped into my head, like some kind of self-hazing ritual initiating me into a new normal. As I send this sociography to publication, Russia has invaded Ukraine. The Chernobyl Zone, along with the rest of the country, has become a battlefield. There is no other way for me to write this, from a distance, other than to do so through a looping disorientation. And so I write by turning paragraphs into zones that surround ideas, memories, facts, and feelings of place that are never stable, but always on the move.