The mainstream cliche of aliens as little green men surely arose out of rubber suits worn in early Hollywood and Japanese sci fi flicks but where the idea of alien abductions (complete with anal probes) is a mystery to me. Humorist Christopher Buckley, as always, finds this Area 51 fertile ground for his biting wit focusing on the foibles of modern America; his visitors no more real then those of the silver screen.
All those claims of abduction are, here, real as far as the victims can tell but rather than aliens the perpetrators are employees of a secretive (of course) US government bureaucracy called MJ-12. Founded in the wake of WWII this agency has managed to keep its existence unknown for 50 years despite an increasingly large budget and media scrutiny of its activity but now one low-level staffer named Nathan Scrubbs might hae brought it all crumbling down out of sheer boredom.
A drunken Scrubbs is watching one of those Sunday morning Washington wonkfests hosted by the WASPiest men in the capital, John Oliver Banion, and decides the man needs a little shaking up. As do the agency higher-ups for passing him over for promotion or at least a little attention. Scrubbs tasks a team to give Banion the treatment and after waiting in vain for a mention on the show or an OpEd column sends them for a second, more invasive session that derails a highly paid speech to business execs.
Now Scrubbs gets the explosion because Banion’s tightly wound psyche cannot disbelieve what he’s experienced despite never once giving the idea of extraterrestrial lovers the least credence. The result is far more than expected–or desired–because the pundit is, after all, no slouch and in short order has whipped the extremely large believer community into a cohesion and political clout that cannot be ignored.
MJ-1 has taken notice too, which isn’t good for the forlorn grunt and Scrubbs’ best efforts to stay off the grid are nowhere near good enough. Everything crashes together when three million UFOphiles show up for a “Millenial Man March” on the Mall.
definitely recommended
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