{"id":287936,"date":"2011-10-31T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2011\/10\/31\/assault-on-the-minibar\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T16:16:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T16:16:52","slug":"assault-on-the-minibar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2011\/10\/31\/assault-on-the-minibar\/","title":{"rendered":"Assault on the Minibar"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned this in passing a couple weeks back, but The Paris Review website<\/a> recently posted Dubrakva Ugresic’s “Assault on the Minibar,” which is one of the many fantastic pieces in her new collection, Karaoke Culture.<\/em><\/a> <\/p>\n

A number of sites have been linking to this essay, and I particularly like the summary that The Millions<\/a> posted:<\/p>\n

\n

Anyone who travels a lot will enjoy Dubravka Ugresic\u2018s essay on hotel minibars. As a matter of fact, just about anyone will enjoy this essay regardless of how often they travel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Here’s the opening of Dubravka’s attack:<\/p>\n

\n

At the reception desk I filled in all the necessary details and got the key. Before I headed off to my room the receptionist asked:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cWould you like to open a hotel account?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cIt means that you don\u2019t have to pay for everything you have or use in the hotel immediately, you just give your account number.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

I declined. What do I want with a hotel account? I\u2019m only here for three days. Breakfast is included, and most of the time I\u2019ll be out and about.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The room was large, luxurious, and had that fresh new smell. The furniture was certainly brand-new, the bathroom enormous, and the heavy windows opened gracefully with the touch of a button.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

I hadn\u2019t even gotten around to unpacking my things when I heard a knock at the door.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cCan I help you?\u201d I asked the young porter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cSorry, but I have to lock the minibar.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cBecause you didn\u2019t open a hotel account,\u201d he said, before heading for the minibar, locking it, and leaving.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

All of a sudden I felt the blade of the invisible sword of injustice pressing on the back of my neck. I don\u2019t even use minibars. Alcohol doesn\u2019t agree with me; I don\u2019t like greasy, stale crisps; I hate any kind of peanuts; candy bars of uncertain origin aren\u2019t my thing; random bottled liquids inevitably give me heartburn; and carbonated, nonalcoholic drinks are just plain bad for your health. The bottom line is that a minibar doesn\u2019t have anything I\u2019d ever want. So why did I feel so humiliated? Just because the bellboy locked the minibar? Did he put a padlock on the shower, the bathroom tap, the TV remote, the toilet seat? He didn\u2019t. Rationalizing it, comforting myself with thoughts of the palatial bed or a hot shower, nothing helped. I was inconsolable. It was just the hopeless sense of deprivation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n<\/p>\n

You can read the whole thing here<\/a> and can purchase the book here<\/a> and can subscribe to get this and all Open Letter titles here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned this in passing a couple weeks back, but The Paris Review website recently posted Dubrakva Ugresic’s “Assault on the Minibar,” which is one of the many fantastic pieces in her new collection, Karaoke Culture. A number of sites have been linking to this essay, and I particularly like the summary that The Millions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[43846,2186,41696,28166,38216,1646,3536],"class_list":["post-287936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-assault-on-the-minibar","tag-dubravka-ugresic","tag-karaoke-culture","tag-open-letter-books","tag-paris-review","tag-review","tag-the-millions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319916,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287936\/revisions\/319916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}