Essay Questions

What is the Leteo Procedure?

According to its advertising material, the Leteo Procedure is a “cutting-edge memory-relief” solution for those who want to rid themselves of unwanted memories. If your mind is suddenly inundated with the words the words spotless, sunshine, and eternal as you struggle to remember in what order they appear in the title of a movie with that guy from The Truman Show and the chick who survives the sinking of the Titanic, you are not on the wrong track. The Leteo Procedure and whatever that crazy process of doing the same thing in the movie was called take different routes to achieving much the same purpose, but that is where the similarity ends between both the means of extricating memories and the plot of the two stories.

What is anterograde amnesia and how does it differ from “regular” amnesia?

By “regular” amnesia is meant, of course, the type of memory loss most often portrayed simply as “amnesia” in movies and TV shows. That type of amnesia is technically known as retrograde amnesia and it is characterized by the familiar condition of losing access to memories that were already created and stored before the amnesia hit. Anterograde amnesia stands in stark contrast in that some sufferers actually can recall memories right up to the moment the condition hits, but they cannot store any new memories after the fact. In other words, a person with anterograde amnesia might be able to recall their first day of school, but won’t be able to recall the five almost identical conversations they have had about that first day with an old classmate in the last few hours of today. This tragic circumstance is terrifying played out in the novel when it becomes clear to the reader that the conversation in which the narrator first learns all about anterograde amnesia is pretty much the same conversation in which he first learns all about anterograde amnesia he has been having for hours.

What does the protagonist hope to “forget” forever by undergoing the Leteo Procedure?

Aaron Soto is suicidal over miscommunication about his and another boy’s sexuality. Although it may seem an unlikely fix, Aaron comes to view the promises by the Leteo Institute as the answer to his most pressing problem: going back in time to not become gay. Yes, of course, it is much more complicated than that, but essentially that is the plan. It is in those complications that the story expands beyond what would otherwise likely be a complete disaster to become a commentary on the role that memories have in creating identity. While we all have unpleasant moments that we might like to surgically carve out of memory banks, wholesale removal of a string of connected events inevitably involve decisions that come to define us to ourselves as well as others. And it is in this space that the book examines the possibility of “forgetting” you are gay or straight or both or neither or whatever.