Amnesiascope

Amnesiascope

Author	Steve Erickson
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Avantpop
Publisher	Henry Holt and Company
Publication date	1996
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	225 pp
ISBN
Preceded by	Arc d'X
Followed by	The Sea Came in at Midnight

Amnesiascope is a 1996 novel by Steve Erickson. Set in Los Angeles after a cataclysmic earthquake, the novel incorporates elements of other novels that Erickson had published, such as the silent film from his first novel, Days Between Stations. Though not a genre novel, it was a finalist for the British Fantasy Award.

The main character lives in a converted hotel in Hollywood, where he works as the film critic for a weekly newspaper. The story is told in an oneiric fashion, without a clear explanation of all the strange elements of a partly real, partly imaginary Los Angeles. Amnesiascope focuses mostly on the protagonist's relationship with Viv, a sexually adventurous yet committed artist, with whom the narrator works on the making of an avant-garde erotic short film. The narrator also has to deal with different factions at the paper, the various time zones he experiences driving through LA, the complexities of making a pornographic film, and his feelings of guilt after writing for his paper a review of The Death of Marat, a non-existent film by Adolphe Sarre, a non-existent director, which takes on a life of its own. The non-linear story is often interrupted by descriptions of dreams that the protagonist or other characters have had. Moreover, events told have a dream-like quality, inasmuch as what seems to have actually happened is subsequently dealt with as if it were a dream or fantasy (cf. the first meeting with Justine, who subsequently doesn't seem to remember having met the protagonist). At the end of the novel, the narrating I has lost his job at the paper and Viv, yet he has gained back a sense of himself.

Although Erickson has a style similar to magical realism or surrealism at times, Amnesiascope is often considered his most autobiographical novel. The narrator works for a weekly paper in Los Angeles, just as Erickson did from 1989 to 1992. He continues to explore themes from his other novels, such as the idea that fiction is often a superior reality. During the filming of the pornographic film, the narrator writes about a woman he meets, and even though the same woman is later cast in the role, she cannot play herself. Also, though the narrator invents a review of a film, which is actually taken from an earlier novel by Erickson, he soon hears people talking about the movie as though it was real, and finally he ends up at a film festival where he watches his imaginary movie on the big screen.