The (Delicate) Art of Bureaucracy

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.

—Herman Melville, Moby Dick

As for the metaphysical thoughts, my dear sir, allow me to say that any brain is capable of producing them, it’s just that we cannot always find the words.

—José Saramago, All the Names

Someone must have been telling lies about Mark S., because one day, without having done anything wrong, he woke in his bed to find himself suddenly transformed into a giant insect—a bureaucrat.* Crawling through government office buildings, his exoskeleton examined by puzzled security folks; burrowing through great piles of bureaucratic waste; propping ...