Waiting for the Galactic Bus

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Waiting for the Galactic Bus is a 1988 science fiction novel by Parke Godwin and published by Doubleday Books. It is the predecessor to Godwin's 1989 sequel, The Snake Oil Wars.

Waiting for the Galactic Bus
Author	Parke Godwin
Cover artist	Chris Hopkins
Country	USA
Language	English
Series	The Snake Oil Series
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1989
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	244 pages
Preceded by	A Truce With Time
Followed by	The Snake Oil Wars

1 Plot summary
2 Literary devices
3 Themes
4 See also
5 Sources
6 References

[edit] Plot summary

The tale begins with two college-age brothers, Barion and Coyul, members of an advanced alien world. Their race is endowed with the power to manipulate physical matter with their minds, a power which is exploited incessantly by the young adults. An accident relegates the brothers to Earth, which at the time, has no human race. The brothers hope for rescue, but eventually grow despondent. In their free time, they illicit a series of evolutionary changes on the indigenous primates of Earth, which eventually lead to the blossoming of human civilization.

The brothers grow fond of their project, which they ardently monitor, intervening when necessary. Of all the progress they are able to endow humans with, they are never able to rid them of the darkness, what is termed as "spiritual schizophrenia". Humans have an insatiable need to decipher the meaning of life, a thirst which leads to stubborn belief systems and an immense amount of violence.

Eons later, the brothers' creation is in danger due to an unlikely courtship. Charity Stovall is a passionately religious young woman from a small American town. She is poised to marry Roy Stride, a violent young fascist. The young couple is oblivious to the fact that if they are to bear a child, it would have the propensity to destroy the entire human population. Subsequently, the two brothers literally put the duo through hell to keep them apart, subjecting them to outrageous scenarios beyond their control.

[edit] Literary devices

Much of the story is expressed through character dialogue, in an outrageous style similar to that of acclaimed British writer Douglas Adams. Godwin also makes frequent allusions to a variety of notable American pop culture icons such as McDonalds, Charlton Heston, and Haight-Ashbury. The writing style incorporates elements of absurdism, especially the futility of attempting to find meaning in the universe¹.

[edit] Themes

Waiting for the Galactic Bus is rich in satire. Godwin uses Charity Stovall's character to symbolize the pitfalls of ignorance and ethnocentrism; Charity has good intentions but has the misfortune of believing what she hears. Roy, on the other hand, personifies racism, prejudice, and its often violent ramifications. Roy Strife idolizes Godwin uses these character interactions to satirize ignorance, government, and blind adherence to one's beliefs. Organized religion plays a major role in the development of the story; humans invest an abundance of time in attempting to find a supernatural and transcendent meaning to life. In the book, this search is fruitless; even the creators of their world are morally flawed (perhaps more so than the humans themselves) and the main characters' adherence to religion only serves to misguide them and cause strife.

In addition, Godwin also satirizes the negative aspects of contemporary American culture, most prominently the perceived obsession with television and materalistic goods. The brothers keep Charity occupied by making her into a star; she finds in her wealth a physical and immediate gratification but also realizes the absence of depth and meaning in her newfound fame.