Amnesia as a story driving element

You have no memory of who you are.

How many stories, novels, video games start that way? You wake up one day with no knowledge of who you are or how you got to this point in your life. It’s an overused story driving element because it’s effective: by removing the memories of the protagonist, you are letting the reader enter his shoes and take steps for him. Thanks to amnesia, you are just as new to this world and the character as he is.

Plenty of books also employ “convenient amnesia” as a way to shroud only certain areas in mystery, letting you discover them drop by drop throughout the book. Others use amnesia as a plot device to show the impact of a traumatic event in a character’s life.

It’s been used so often in literature that it’s become a cliched plot device. Shakespeare uses it in King Lear. The Bourne Trilogy employs it. As does DestinyQuest.

Despite being a cliche, amnesia continues to show up in books, games, movies, and anything else people might consume, because it’s so incredibly relatable. Amnesia sufferers are on a Quest for Identity, the answer to the question we’ve all asked at one point or another:

“Who Am I?”

Most gamebooks just throw readers into the shoes of some adventurer, with a sentence or two about where you come from. You are Adventurer Bob, generic protagonist number 3456 from the protagonist assembly line. There is no need for a personality or characterization – the protagonist’s sole reason for existence is to be an empty vessel for the reader to pour his (or her) own personality, ways of thinking, and decision making prowess into.

Yep, kind of like that. [Ed. No idea who this was. Was quite pleased about that when I looked it up.]

Video games don’t do this as often: many times, the protagonist is fleshed out and has strong features. Somehow we don’t find it too difficult to get into the mind and shoes of an army veteran with PTSD, or an archaeologist with probable back pains.

Shown here pre-hormone explosion.

So why do gamebooks do it so often? Maybe that’s because it’s easier to get into a game when you’re blasted with it visually. Maybe it just makes it easier to imagine when there are no pesky issues like personality traits or memories in the way. Or maybe it’s for the more technical reason that it would be just plain too difficult to keep track of the changes in a protagonist’s personality when there are so many possible branched paths for the reader to take.

In a way though, it makes the gamebook entirely about you, the reader and adventurer. You aren’t reading the story of some other person as his character develops: you are that character. And for many that’s what makes a gamebook that much better than a regular book or a game.

What do you guys think: is amnesia an overused plot device?

Yuliya

Yuliya handles marketing and writing at QuestForge, and is the self-appointed chief of keeping Chris sane (despite Chris's insistence that he is the sane one).