THE SPACE PEN CLUB

A nonfiction account of an unruly, largely civilian-based group of investigators, activists, and misfits who pushed for government disclosure of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligences visiting Earth.

In this book’s early sections, public relations specialist Keller describes his background as a journalist covering the Minneapolis music scene (and yes, Prince does make a cameo). In the early 1990s, he decided to change lanes and try to sell a magazine article about advocates urging government officials to reveal “the Truth” about UFOs—one that had been kept hidden ever since the alleged crash of alien craft in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The effort consumed Keller, who came to believe that he witnessed an alien presence as a boy; he was in a park with a friend and saw a red “cherry bomb”–like sphere, which he later interpreted to have been some kind of diagnostic tool. Keller immersed himself in the UFO–enthusiast underground, connecting with the charismatic Dr. Steven Greer of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence—an organization that believed humans could productively communicate with enigmatic, basically benevolent alien visitors using meditation, lights, and sound. Although Keller’s future wife feared that he might be joining a cult, the writer started working for CSETI in a public relations capacity, which brought him into the orbit of Washington, D.C., insiders, astronauts, shamans, and many other figures. Along the way, mainstream media started taking UFO–sighting claims—and secret government/military involvement in them—seriously, perhaps initially inspired by the popularity of the Fox TV show The X-Files.

In these pages, Keller clearly expresses his anger with both UFO skeptics and overboard conspiracy theorists, noting that many people in the ufology field seem to suspect everyone else of being CIA spies. He also reveals how conferencegoers endlessly promise “disclosure”—someone in the government admitting to the reality of space aliens—but never follow through with providing it. Overall, this enjoyable account free-associates through its colorful narrative in a manner that may, for some readers, call to mind the style of fellow Minnesotan Garrison Keillor (who also makes a cameo in these pages). At the same time, Keller’s narrative voice is effectively reminiscent of the style of the late Hunter S. Thompson—particularly his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), as both books center on smart, savvy individuals grappling intellectually with extraordinary, otherworldly stuff that they just can’t shrug off. Keller’s story is loosely framed by fondly expressed flashbacks of a college Space Pen Club, a jejune campus group known for Dadaist stunts and named for a popular writing gadget. He particularly details his dissatisfaction with mainstream media, especially CBS News, which he asserts is either inept or colluding in UFO coverups; however, he does give props to a 1990s Fox show called Sightings. Early on, Keller also reveals that he initially shunned another key UFO pop-culture touchstone—Whitley Strieber’s popular alien-abduction memoir, Communion (1987)—because he didn’t like the movie version.

A snappy UFO memoir-tapestry from a music journalist-turned-publicist.