''Amnesia Moon'' is a 1995 novel by

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His Debut novel, first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, ...

. Lethem adapted the novel from several unpublished short stories he had written, all about catastrophic, apocalyptic events. When

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

published the second edition in 1996, they commissioned Michael Koelsch to illustrate a new cover art; Koelsch had previously illustrated Lethem's previous book cover art ''

Gun, with Occasional Music ''Gun, with Occasional Music'' is a 1994 novel by American writer Jonathan Lethem that blends science fiction and hardboiled detective fiction. The novel won Lethem the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 1995. It was also nominated for the Neb ...

''.

Plot

The protagonist is a survivalist named Chaos, who lives in an abandoned

megaplex A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens or auditoriums within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums a ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

after an apparent

nuclear strike Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produ ...

. The residents of his town of Hatfork are reliant on a sinister

messianic In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach' ...

figure named Kellogg for food. Kellogg also has powerful

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...

s, which he transfers into the minds of others. Chaos's mind is especially receptive, making him reluctant to sleep. Both Lethem and Chaos abandon this premise early on, and Chaos also goes by the name of "Everett Moon", depending on where he is. The novel plays with several other

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

n and post-apocalyptic setups. One area is covered in a thick green fog, save for an exclusive private school.

Vacaville, California Vacaville is a city located in Solano County, California, United States. It is located from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is on the edge of the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. The city was founded in ...

, has converted to a

luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at a ...

-based social system, taken to

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

extremes. ''Amnesia Moon'' bears homage to Philip K. Dick. During a party scene, one guest describes a battle of wills in

West Marin West Marin is the largest region of Marin County, California, which is also rural. West Marin comprises the westernmost towns of Point Reyes Station, Olema, Stinson Beach, Bolinas, Tomales, Dillon Beach, and Inverness. West Marin is genera ...

, and another cites a West Marin inhabitant named "Hoppington", both references to Dick's ''

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb ''Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb'' is a 1965 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Nebula Award for Best Novel, Best Novel in 1965. Dick wrote the novel in 1963 wi ...

''. Vacaville is reminiscent of Dick's ''

Solar Lottery ''Solar Lottery'' is a 1955 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was his first published novel and contains many of the themes present in his later work. It was also published in altered form in the UK as ''World of Chanc ...

'', where society is also based on chance. When Moon and Melinda reach

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

hallucinogenic Hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, entheogens, or historically as psychotomimetics, are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, moo ...

drugs play a role in altered perceptions that provide access to other characters in this world, as in ''

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch ''The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch'' is a 1964 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965. Like many of Dick's novels, it utilizes an array of science fiction conc ...

''. Elsewhere, it is argued that the depicted realities splintered away from each other to provide resistance to a hive-like

alien invasion Alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and films, in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade Earth to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it, harvest people for food, steal the planet's resource ...

of Earth. Such

solipsistic Solipsism ( ; ) is the philosophy, philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemology, epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the Reality, external world ...

worlds are reminiscent of Dick's early novel '' Eye in the Sky''. The one constant throughout is the idea that reality is shaped by powerful and

charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology, the term ''chari ...

tic "dreamers". The reason for the break in realities, and Chaos/Moon's place in this world, is a unifying mystery.

Secondary bibliography

* Rossi, Umberto. "From Dick to Lethem: The Dickian Legacy, Postmodernism, and Avant-Pop in Jonathan Lethem's ''Amnesia Moon''", ''Science-Fiction Studies'' # 86, 29:1, March 2002, 15-33.

References

External links

* 1995 American novels 1995 science fiction novels American science fiction novels American post-apocalyptic novels Novels set in Wyoming Novels set in California Novels by Jonathan Lethem {{1990s-sf-novel-stub

Plot

Secondary bibliography

See also

References

External links