Mr. Spaceman by Olen Butler

In Robert Olen Butler’s Mr. Spaceman, an extraterrestrial visits Earth with a mission. He is running out of time, but his earthling wife, Edna Bradshaw, helps him along the way. Edna is a former hairdresser. She is in her early 40s and has large breasts. She has many Southern old-fashioned traits. The alien’s name cannot be pronounced by Earthlings; therefore, Edna assigns him the name Desi. Desi is a very empathetic creature. His extensive study of media and pop culture causes him to talk in slogans, idioms, and clichés. He has no lips, hair, nose, or ears. He has large cat-shaped eyes, as well as 8 digits on each foot and hand. His species is telepathic and has the power to induce sleep and forgetfulness. At the turn of the millennium, Desi abducts a casino bus of 12 people, near Lake Charles, Louisiana. There are 7 men and 5 women in this group. The driver is Henry Gillette. He is homosexual and has a gray ponytail, along with sideburns. There are a total of four couples. Jared and Citrus are in their early twenties and have body jewelry. Mary and Lucky Wynn are Vietnamese. The other two couples are Viola and Arthur Stackhouse and Misty and Digger. Then, there is Hudson, an African-American Harvard graduate in a suit. The other two passengers are Claudia and Trey, a devoted gambler. Most of the story takes place in Desi’s spacecraft, before “Y2K.” Desi makes an effort to understand humanity. His was sent by his species with orders to reveal himself on New Year’s. Desi tackles what it means to be human; he is perplexed by language, dreams, and other human aspects.

Doniger argued that through the comparison of myths, we can comprehend them better. This novel was very similar to the story of Jesus Christ. The first four words...

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...hy is very strong. He feels their emotions when he holds their voices inside of him. In a sense, he is like a shaman. He has an ability to listen like no other, as he tries to connect emotions with words and understand. Edna Bradshaw is a mother archetype. She is caring. She is a great host and constantly worrying about others. At one point she feels a motherly emptiness after caring for Citrus. Desi fits the role of Carol Pearson’s Magician archetype. He shows compassion and joy to everyone he meets. He comes from species that “eat[s] no sentient thing (Butler 197).” His mission is to reveal himself to a huge crowd to give the implications that Earth is not alone. In proving that there is other life, he hopes that the selfish human population can begin to cooperate. He wants to end the social constraints that keep us from being united. He says, “You are one people