A system built on self-conscious, ideological subjugation of nature confronts a natural force it can scarcely comprehend, much less control.
Soviet men pride themselves on hurling their bodies into the nuclear pyre, which is chunks of irradiated graphite scattered across a reactor roof, and also months spent burying dirt beneath more dirt and shooting housepets.
"People are already living after the nuclear war—though when it began, they didn't notice. I felt like I was recording the future."
