There Is No Antimemetics Division
Ratings91
Average rating4.3
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.
Wall-to-wall WTF this thing dials it up to 11. Every chapter feels like it delivers an epic climax worthy of its own book, the boss fight to end all boss fights, and then just does it again and again. It's unrelenting.
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties which prevents people from spreading it. Aggressive antimemes can be regarded, written about, drawn or photographed — but absent the actual object they are entirely forgotten, the words rendered hieroglyphic, the images blurred.
Already present everywhere on Earth is an antimeme threat labelled SCP-3125. The Antimemetic researchers in the book note the threat is omniversal-scale, endangering neighbouring realities, encroaching on universes that embed theirs as fiction. But how do you fight against a world-ending cognitohazard that is impossible to remember? That once acknowledged erases the individual and any memory of his or hers existence from reality.
How ironic that a book on antimemes has me thinking about it incessantly, I loved this read.
This books just sucks you in and takes you on a rollercoaster ride that quite early leaves the tracks without you even noticing. The dry, pragmatic perspective of bureaucrats and scientists on the unspeakable cosmic nightmare they're delving into makes it funny and unsettling at the same time. And the last chapter especially is a reminder that in the end this is their perspectives through with we view and sometimes historical horrors.
Really cool idea and the exploration of its implications is nicely done in most of the book.
Howerver, the last part feels too simple, grounded and has less anti-memetic shenanigans compared to the start.
A fun, freaky sci-fi horror novel which was - gasp! - self-published by some guy. Well, I am here to say: that guy had some cool ideas! Bravo! Very inventive, in the vein of David Cronenberg (oh man, that body horror was gross-out wonderful), HP Lovecraft (cosmic uber-entities who are cruel and intent on fucking your shit up), and that one Dr. Who episode that was sooooo good.
The premise: there is a secret organization called the Foundation. It's their job to protect humanity from other-worldly, supernatural threats. So far so standard. The inventiveness of author Sam Hughes is in the quality of the threat: the Foundation is up against both “memetic” and “antimemetic” entities - that is, ideas that are either dangerously viral (and thus insidious and infiltrating into humanity's consciousness), or aggressively un-seeable/forgettable. The antimemetics are - mwah - chef's kiss. Since the Foundation characters often begin to realize - and the writing does a decent job of capturing - that they are having some severe short term memory loss, often on the fly and while running away from a scary antimeme manifesting as a creepy corporate man. This was like if Alzheimer's had a will of its own and that will was pure evil. These memetic and antimemetic supernatural thingies mostly exist in the inscrutable, Lovecraftian “aether” - the MIND SPACE, if you will - but sometimes they also take physical form as, amusingly, super disgusting body horror monsters.
There is quite a bit of gore - almost a bit too much for me - and the plot is circuitous, with many false starts and false ends and forgotten bits and re-done bits. I didn't really try to follow it too closely. I was mostly along for the ride. Oh yes, and it did remind me of another wonderful, fun body horror geeky sci-fi book, which was Greg Bear's Blood Music. This was a similarly pulpy - PUN SORT OF INTENDED - story that was both an enjoyable thought experiment (how to defeat an enemy that keeps rewriting your history?) and a fast-paced thriller.
A concept as convoluted as this could easily get bogged down and become narratively unsatisfying, but the author is skilled enough to avoid going too heavy on the mind bending aspects while still making them integral to the identity of the work. The end is not quite as strong as the middle and beginning, but does well enough as a wrap up to a delightfully unsettling journey.
So, yeah, definitely Lovecraftian in many ways: in magnitude (this is end-of-the-world horror, not pedestrian handful-of-teens-in-the-woods); in intention (no impersonal asteroids or supernovae, we're talking pure directed malevolence); in complexity; and, most importantly, in creativity—the ideas developed here are really clever.
Unfortunately, I've never cared for Lovecraft. Even as a teen, before I learned what a racist PoS he was, I found his stories tedious. Like, okay, I've got this great idea for a concept, let's see if I can completely kill it in development. This book was (unlike Lovecraft) actually quite good, well written, thought-provoking, enjoyable... it just tried too hard to work with ideas that can't pan out. (I won't go into details or spoilers. It just doesn't add up. Not the motivations, nor the background, and least of all the science.) There are just some ideas, like impromptu hitchhiking to South America or coating your lover in whipped cream, that are better just left to the imagination.
One of the most mentally engaging books I've read in a while. Absolutely loved the crazy concepts, twists, and off the wall battles. It was eerie in all the right places and I can't wait to forget most of it so I can read it again!
Kudos to the Monomythical newsletter for convincing me to pick up a self-published book that is also based in a creative commons-shared wiki-based internet universe thingy (I won't even pretend to understand how those spaces work as it's not my scene).
This is excellent sci-fi horror that reminded me a lot of Jeff Vandermeer's Area X books - somewhat similar scares, with a love story at the centre, and metaphorically potent.
Good lord... Honestly I had to finish this book outside at a park, near a church, and surrounded by people living their normal lives.
That's the physical space required to get through ‘There Is No Antimemetics Division'. I don't know what headspace compels you to read it in the first place or want to finish it. It's an entirely new way with which you can spook yourself and, at the end, be glad you exist.
The back and forth in timelines isn't my favorite, in a book that tackles maybe too many ideas all at once. But all in all, it's a really good read and a wonderful foray into the idea of a universe where god(s) do exist, but not the benevolent/creator-kind we've invented with religion.
A disturbing, good book. Stay away from it. Or don't. I don't know, are these memories real?
Gordon Ramsay voice
“Finally some good fucking cosmic horror”
I didn't know this was an SCP book going in, and I'm glad I didn't because I definitely wouldn't have given it the chance it deserves.
There's a complex balancing act that is underway in this book and I don't think it lands it completely successfully, but it sure gets close.
The set-up/payoff for the emotional/human story is perfect. I loved the characters and qntm absolutely nailed their arcs.
At the same time though, this is a high concept plot driven scifi narrative, with one of the strongest and most interesting set-ups I've ever come across. A set-up/thought experiment that's going to be bouncing around inside my head for the rest of my life alongside other info hazards like Roko's Basilisk. This set-up gives this book 5 stars alone. I can't overstate how monumentally into this concept I am.
That said, the payoff was a bit disappointing. I was really hoping for a final third that matched the conceptual density of the opening third, but I don't think it really got there for me. It gave me the emotional catharsis and satisfaction of a well told character drama, but with it being so plot driven I was excited for and anticipating a surprising and/or interesting and/or thought provoking plot resolution and didn't really get that.
I think maybe telling this story within the confines of the SCP universe hamstringed the author a little. Might have gone better with the serial numbers filed off?
Either way, 5 fucking stars. I seriously loved it and am hype for anything qntm puts out in the future.