Hardcover, 209 pages
English language
Published Jan. 23, 2021 by Independently Published.
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties ; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.
Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams... But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war? Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.
Unnerving and fragmentary, very satisfying exploration around questions of memory, trust, and institutional decay.
This was a great read. If SCP wiki is at all something you like, you'll like this.
Mind bending cosmic horror that's reminiscent of the laundry files and towards the end, COVID.
It's nice to find science fiction with a novel conceit that's delivered as well as this one. Each chapter builds on the previous until we're through the looking glass. By the nature of the topic it has plenty of opportunity to talk about the importance of memory, though I feel like it only scratches the surface of the setting.
Got me hooked from the very first page.
Got to about 40% with this one. I don’t regret it, I really enjoyed the first part of this. It felt like Severance (the show), the Matrix, and even Outer Worlds (the game) at times. Fun and intriguing.
But after a while it felt like it had run its course. The additions to the concept were less interesting. So I’m fine to just stop here and say I had a good time with what I read.
The normal world carries on around us, and we are all oblivious to the world ending horrors that constantly seek to reshape reality. If only there was an organisation dedicated to securing, containing and protecting us? If there was, I'm sure they would have an antimemetics division to deal with those pesky cognitohazards. Or would they?
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 …
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.
If you like Charles Stross's "Atrocity Archives" or Doctor Who's "The Silence" story arc, you're going to love "There Is No Antimemetics Division".
It explores the idea of what would an anti-meme war look like. I understand that the story was originally serialized on a blog, but it fits together pretty well. The final act was great, but just shy of mind-blowing.
I give 5 stars sparingly, but I knew this deserved one just 50 pages in. Overall, a great addition to my new sci-fi canon, because this story stays with me. I think about it during the day, and I feel like it shifts my perspective in an interesting way. I intended to ship it to my fellow-sci-fi-loving mom after I was done, but it's got more Lovecraftian gore and body horror than she'd like.
Perfection
This book is an explosion of ideas, astounding and obvious and transformative and crazy and valid. And the people are people, and intensely human through it all.
It feels odd to say that this is the best piece of science fiction I've ever read, both because how could that not be hyperbole, and because "science fiction" at the same time doesn't do it justice.
But there it is: this is the best piece of science fiction I've ever read.
No doubt that's partly because it happens to fit my personal tastes and interests so very perfectly.
But also, it's just that good.
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub.