There Is No Antimemetics Division
Ratings86
Average rating4.2
Fascinating extension of the thesis that memory of the past is necessary for advancement in the future. It could have benefitted from work with a good editor to compact the story into a smaller isotope.
Fascinating extension of the thesis that memory of the past is necessary for advancement in the future. It could have benefitted from work with a good editor to compact the story into a smaller isotope.
In the early pages of this book I thought I was in some Kafka world. By the time I got to later parts I didn't know what to make of it. And as it ended I was getting a bit of a feel for what is really going on. I guess being weird for the sake of being weird sometimes turns out OK.
Ultimately this is a book of warfare, but we never really find out who the enemy is. What we do find out is that the enemy has the power to erase any memories the people have of their engagement with them, or it, or anything to do with the war. In this respect the enemy is an anti-meme. A meme is a thing that we remember but has a life of its own. And antimeme exists if we observe it but no sooner do we turn our back and it is gone from memory and therefore gone from existence.
The Foundation is the only surviving agency fighting the war, and its members are disappearing. The stronger antimemes have the power to overrun a person's mind to the point of death. Foundation agents take certain drugs that allow them to remember antimeme contact and therefore plot against them. We learn that there has been at least one antimeme war that obliterated the human population some time in the distant past.
Marion Wheeler is the main agent and head of The Foundation. Her husband, Adam, is not an agent but he seems to be immune from the 'forget impact' and the antimemes. Marion is the main player in the book, but Adam emerges as humanity's real hope towards the end.
In the early pages of this book I thought I was in some Kafka world. By the time I got to later parts I didn't know what to make of it. And as it ended I was getting a bit of a feel for what is really going on. I guess being weird for the sake of being weird sometimes turns out OK.
Ultimately this is a book of warfare, but we never really find out who the enemy is. What we do find out is that the enemy has the power to erase any memories the people have of their engagement with them, or it, or anything to do with the war. In this respect the enemy is an anti-meme. A meme is a thing that we remember but has a life of its own. And antimeme exists if we observe it but no sooner do we turn our back and it is gone from memory and therefore gone from existence.
The Foundation is the only surviving agency fighting the war, and its members are disappearing. The stronger antimemes have the power to overrun a person's mind to the point of death. Foundation agents take certain drugs that allow them to remember antimeme contact and therefore plot against them. We learn that there has been at least one antimeme war that obliterated the human population some time in the distant past.
Marion Wheeler is the main agent and head of The Foundation. Her husband, Adam, is not an agent but he seems to be immune from the 'forget impact' and the antimemes. Marion is the main player in the book, but Adam emerges as humanity's real hope towards the end.
