Frozen War (Hotel Diaries 1)

Reacting to a frozen BBC broadcast on the night of NATO’s bombing of Afghanistan in 2001, John Smith launches into a stream of thoughts while pouring over the television set in his hotel room. His sardonic, drawling monologue conveys all at once an anxiety at the interruption of media-induced fear, an anomie created by a double distance from the state of the world and an irritation at the second-most useless piece of furniture in his room.

– Srikanth Srinivasan