The Tale of the Unknown Island
Jose Saramago
A man went to knock at the king’s door and said, Give me a boat. The king’s house had many other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting at the door for favors (favors being offered for the king you understand), whenever he heard someone knocking at the door for petitions, he would pretend not to hear, and only when the continuous pounding of the bronze doorknocker became not just deafening, but positively scandalous, disturbing the peace of the neighborhood (people would start muttering, What kind of king is he if he won’t even answer the door), only then would he order the first secretary to go and find out what the supplicant wanted, since there seemed to way of silencing him. Then, the first secretary would call the second secretary, who would call the third, who would give orders to the first assistant who would, in turn, give order to the second assist and, and so on all the way down the line to the cleaning woman, who, having no one else to give orders to, would half-open the door and ask through the crack, What do you want. The supplicant would state his business, that is, he would ask what he had come to ask, then he would wait by the door for his request to trace the path back, person by person, to the king. The king, occupied as usual with the favors being offered him, would take a long time to reply, and it was no small measure of his concern for the happiness and well-being of his people that he would, finally, resolve to ask the first secretary for an authoritative opinion in writing, the first secretary, needless to say, would pass on the command to the second secretary, who would pass it to the third secretary, and so on down once again to the cleaning woman, who would give a yes or no depending upon what kind of mood she was in.
However, in the case of the man who wanted a boat, this is not quite what happened. When the cleaning woman asked him through the crack in the door, What do you want, the man, unlike all the others did not ask for a title, a medal, or simply money, he said, I want to talk to the king, You know perfectly well the king can’t come, he’s busy at the door of favors, replied the woman, Well, go and tell him that I’m not leaving here until he comes, in person, to find out what I want, said the man, and he lay down across the threshold, covering himself with a blanket against the cold. Anyone wanting to go in or out would have to step over him first. Now this pose an enormous problem, because one must bear in mind that, according to protocol governing the different doors, only one supplicant could be dealt with at a time, which meant that, as long as there was someone waiting there for a response no one else could approach and make known their needs or ambitions. At first glance, it would seem that the person to gain most from this article in the regulations was the king, given that the fewer people bothering him with their various tale of wow, the longer he could spend, undisturbed, receiving, relishing and piling up favors. A second glace, however, would reveal that the king was very much the loser, because when the people realized the unconscionable amount of time it took to get a reply, the ensuing public protests would seriously increase social unrest, and that, in turn, would have an immediate and negative effect on the flow of favors being offered to the king. In this particular case, as a result of weighing up the pros and cons, after three days, the king went, in person, to the door for favors to find out what he wanted, this troublemaker who had refuse to allow his request to go through the proper bureaucratic channels.
The story goes on to tell that the man wants the boat to find an undiscovered island. Although the king at first refuses, again the man's determination and persistence win out. The man is given a boat, and with the help of the cleaning woman and others, sets off on his quest to find the "Unknown Island."