All The Names - Jose Saramago

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Apart from his first name, José, Senhor José also has surnames, very ordinary ones, nothing
extravagant, one from his father's side, another from his mother's, as is normal, names legitimately
transmitted, as we could confirm in the Register of Births in the Central Registry if the matter justified our
interest and if the results of that inquiry repaid the labour of merely confirming what we already know.
However, for some unknown reason, assuming it is not simply a response to the very insignificance of the
person, when people ask Senhor José what his name is, or when circumstances require him to introduce
himself, I'm so-and-so, giving his full name has never got him anywhere, since the people he is talking to
only ever retain the first part, José, to which they will later add, or not, depending on the degree of
formality or politeness, a courteous or familiar form of address. For, and let us make this quite clear, the
"Senhor" is not worth quite what it might at first seem to promise, at least not here in the Central Registry,
where the fact that everyone addresses everyone else in the same way, from the Registrar down to the
most recently recruited clerk, does not necessarily have the same meaning when applied to the different
relationships within the hierarchy, for, in the varying ways that this one short word is spoken, and
according to rank or to the mood of the moment, one can observe a whole range of modulations:
condescension, irritation, irony, disdain, humility, flattery, a clear demonstration of the extent of
expressive potentiality of two brief vocal emissions which, at first glance, in that particular combination,
appeared to be saying only one thing. More or less the same happens with the two syllables of José, plus
the two syllables of Senhor, when these precede the name. When someone addresses the above-named
person either inside the Central Registry or outside it, one will always be able to detect a tone of disdain,
irony, irritation or condescension. The caressing, melodious tones of humility and flattery never sang in
the ears of the clerk Senhor José, these have never had a place in the chromatic scale of feelings normally
shown to him. One should point out, however, that some of these feelings are far more complex than those
listed above, which are rather basic and obvious, one-dimensional. When, for example, the Registrar
gave the order, Senhor José, change those covers for me, will you, an attentive, finely tuned ear would
have recognised in his voice something which, allowing for the apparent contradiction in terms, could be
described as authoritarian indifference, that is, a power so sure of itself that it not only completely
ignored the person it was speaking to, not even looking at him, but also made absolutely clear that it
would not subsequently lower itself to ascertain that the order had been carried out. To reach the topmost
shelves, the ones at ceiling height, Senhor José had to use an extremely long ladder and, because,
unfortunately for him, he suffered from that troubling nervous imbalance which we commonly call fear of
heights, and in order to avoid crashing to the ground, he had no option but to tie himself to the rungs with a
strong belt. Down below, it did not occur to any of his colleagues of the same rank, much less his
superiors, to look up and see if he was getting on all right. Assuming that he was all right was merely
another way of justifying their indifference.
In the beginning, a beginning that went back many centuries, the employees actually lived in the
Central Registry. Not inside it, exactly, in corporate promiscuity, but in some simple, rustic dwellings
built outside, along the side walls, like small defenceless chapels clinging to the robust body of the
cathedral. The houses had two doors, a normal door that opened onto the street and an additional door,
discreet, almost invisible, that opened onto the great nave of the archives, an arrangement which, in those
days and indeed for many years, was held to be highly beneficial to the proper functioning of the service,
since employees did not have to waste time travelling across the city, nor could they blame the traffic
when they signed in late. Apart from these logistical advantages, it was extremely easy to send in the
inspectors to find out if they really were ill when they called in sick. Unfortunately, a change in municipal