Graham Greene on men at work
Compared to joining the British army at the outbreak of World War II, the post that Graham Greene took up in the Ministry of Information was a soft option but it didn't prevent him from satirizing the bureaucracy in "Men at Work". In the short story, Europe might be falling under the Nazi jackboot and the Battle of Britain may be raging, but the central character, Skate, has to chair a Book Committee meeting. The agenda reads:
1. Arising from the Minutes.
2. Pamphlet in Welsh on German labour conditions.
3. Facilities for Wilkinson to visit the A.T.S.
4. Objections to proposed Bone pamphlet.
5. Suggestions for a leaflet from Meat Marketing Boards.
6. The problem of India.
The meeting is in progress when someone bursts into with news of an impending air raid:
" 'We must really get Bone's pamphlet out,' Hill said.
Skate suddenly, to his surprise, said savagely, 'That'll show them,' and then sat down in humble collapse as though he had been caught out in treachery."
The meeting breaks up; Skate goes to the window and looks up at the sky. As he contemplates the heavens, Greene has him deliver one of the most perfectly balanced sentences ever written: "Far up in the pale enormous sky little white lines, like the phosphorescent spoor of snails, showed where men were going home after work."
Graham Greene was sacked from the Ministry of Information after six months. He didn't complain. In 1941, he found the role that would determine so much of his life and work. He was recruited into the British Secret Service by his younger sister Elisabeth.
