Who Killed Cecil Palmer? The Role of Memory in Night Vale’s Self-Narrative Rupture

Abstract

How does Cecil know who he is if he cannot remember who he was? Using the Welcome to Night Vale episode “Cassette” as a jumping-off point, I argue that Cecil draws upon an array of mnemonic practices to cope with his forgotten past and a forced remembering of what appears to be a violent moment in his childhood. Cecil copes with the trauma of forced remembering by deciding that he will forget again until he feels prepared to remember again. Cecil’s journey to remember and forget serves as a case to understand individual agency in shaping one’s own self-narrative via remembering and forgetting. I close with a discussion of theoretical implications for both sudden, individual-level trauma and the study of memory broadly.

And I came across these cassette tapes marked “Cecil Radio Test. Age 15.” You know, listeners, I have no memory whatsoever of making these tapes. Isn’t that so weird? At one point they must have meant so much to me, and now they are just objects, with no remembered life attached to them. (Episode 33, “Cassette,” emphasis added)