Memory and Mythology

Memory and Mythology are two major themes which recur throughout the novel, and the author shows how the two are connected throughout the narrative. In the first chapter, Dodge muses on the idea of the River Lethe in Greek mythology, where deceased souls who drink from its waters lose the memories of their human lives. This causes Dodge to wonder if going through such an experience would fundamentally change a person, if losing their memories would fundamentally shift who they were. Dodge unwittingly becomes a practical experiment in this question, as he is reawakened in the Bitworld without any memories and must reconstruct an identity for himself. It is left to the reader to determine whether Egdod and Dodge are the same person or different from one another, and this ambiguous question permeates the rest of the novel.

This question is also explored with...