Who Am I, Man?
You wake up in the dark. Something falls off your face. It's a cowboy hat. You sit up and see endless, mirror smooth salt flats, the sky perfectly reflected below you. But who are you? And how did you get here?
Why the hat?
There it is – another bout of retrograde amnesia. While rarely observed in reality, in fiction, this disorder is as common – and perhaps, as despised – as the flu. Mention it to a friend on a flat night when you're bored looking for something to watch and they'll roll their eyes. ...really?
I will underline that I have a huge bias, (lol) but I adore the amnesia cliché. I just wanna gush about it. Especially since it's something so often shot down & criticized.
Amnesia is an easy and effective tool to start a mystery. Someone wakes up dazed and confused, and finds things out with us along the way. So many fun stories start this way. Ruby Quest, SOMA, Alethia, Disco Elysium, Robocop, BACK, Kaiba, etc (judge my shit taste all ya want :3 ).
When the protagonist doesn't know the fuck is going on, it disorients, intrigues. Like in media res, you are thrown in the midst of something fascinating and left to pick up the pieces. Every story strives to make you care about the characters, to want more – one great way to do that is to shroud the protagonist in a mystery, profound even to herself. You don't need amnesia to hide a character's past, but that brick wall in the mind, that wiped hard drive, its full of potential for angst, frustration, listless confusion, rash thinking... all kinds of juicy good stuff that will propel you into a fun story!
Perhaps the amnesia cliché is appealing for its poignant portrayals of a quest for identity.
Amnesia is rarely portrayed realistically. Retrograde Amnesia (losing all memories before The Thing That Caused It) is usually what we write about. In reality, Anterograde Amnesia is most common. This is when someone can't form new memories, like a cassette tape stuck on repeat. It is a rather debilitating condition, and I am no expert on the subject. To be stuck in an endless loop in your own mind is frightening to think about. In the books, these patients simply regain their faculties by being hit on the head, shown old places, familiar faces, or objects! But that is a fiction. Some real patients regain their memory, sure… but it is uncommon. Especially if the memory loss came from a traumatic brain injury. This deus-ex-machina "quick fix" part of the cliché has turned me off many a story.
But a story is an escape, of course, and writers are not beholden to make their writing make sense. Sometimes you just wanna meme. Make fun of the clichés. Be deliberately obtuse. Cartoony! That's cool too. The extra research for authenticity can be really worth it, though.
Don't let my little gripes deter you, though. Next time you dig in to a new story and groan because it's just another sad shmuck waking up in a place he doesn't recognize, give the poor guy a chance.
You might both discover something interesting.