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There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm

So I've previously mentioned my interest in the SCP Foundation, with its oddly specific yet shockingly versatile format that lends itself to the exploration of all sorts of strange new scifi concepts. Among this variety, memetic and antimemetic anomalies (ie, anomalies that mess with memory in some way) were always among my favorites. It probably touches on a genuine deep-seated fear I have of forgetting things, losing the memories that ultimately make me who I am. I had of course read SCP-3125 a long time ago and found the idea absolutely, bone-chillingly fascinating. "Cosmic horror" too often just means "there's this big monster floating in space that's gonna eat us all eventually" and while that can be scary if done right, I don't think it comes close to the full potential of what the name implies. SCP-3125 does. What if there was an idea out there, one so utterly alien and beyond the scope of human thinking that merely becoming aware of it would kill you, or twist you into something unrecognizable? What hope can humanity have against such a threat? Now, that's nightmare fuel.

I was vaguely aware that there were tales around 3125, possibly even a full series of them, but I'd always struggled getting into SCP tales, as I feel like they lose the uniqueness of the format that makes this type of writing unique, so I must confess I never bothered to check them out. It was only when I heard a Youtuber I watch for unrelated reasons bring it up as a published book, seemingly unrelated to the SCP universe, that my interest was piqued. And still I had to wait until around the time Backrooms came out, and made me think back about the idea of indy internet horror going mainstream, to convince me it was time to actually check it out. I've also been on a weird journey when it comes to memory lately, falling into rabbit holes about stuff like the Mandela Effect and lost media, so this felt like the right time to jump into it. I read the audiobook version of the traditionally published book, which files off the serial numbers when it comes to SCP lore (not sure why they had to, since this all falls under Creative Commons, but whatever) but which I assume to be qntm's definitive version of the story.

So. Non-spoiler thoughts first, so I can hopefully convince some of y'all to check it out. Because boy oh boy that was incredible. It was everything I had expected (a thorough exploration of a truly mind-bending scifi concept in all its existentially terrifying yet fascinating implications) and then so much more. I was hooked by the concept, so I wasn't expecting particularly deep characters or themes to come along for the ride, and it was such a wonderful surprise when they started taking shape! It does take a while to get there, and the story's structure kinda plays against it at first. The thing is that this is technically a collection of short stories rather than a novel in the conventional sense. At first, the stories feel a bit disjointed, only held together by their shared setting and characters than by any narrative through-line. But don't let that fool you: the through-line is there, lurking in the background and then slowly coming into focus. It's like a jigsaw puzzle: the first few pieces you get seem completely unrelated, but the more pieces you get, the more you realize how it all fits together.

This is compounded by the fact that the characters are constantly forgetting information they've just learned (as you'd expect, it's the main occupational hazard of working in the Antimemetics Division), so they have to re-learn the same thing over and over and over. If that sounds tedious, I swear it isn't! It creates a whole new form of dramatic irony that makes every moment so much more tense than it would otherwise be. This does, however, mean that this is the sort of reading that benefits from active engagement: you have to keep in mind not only what you know, but what the characters know (or usually don't) that might explain their behavior at a given time. The important information is all there, but it takes effort to collect it and recall it when it's needed. There's a delightful meta element to it, of course, as this puts you in a position very similar to an employee of the Antimemetics Division.

The effort really pays off, though. As I've already said, the book succeeds not just by its concept (which would have been enough to make the experience worthwhile) but also by its characters and themes. I can't say too much about either of those, of course, but allow me to say there are two things I wasn't expecting this book to have: 1. A compelling, non-clichéd heterosexual romance, something I haven't come across in I don't even know how long; 2. Shockingly meaningful social commentary and philosophical insights. This is really as much as I can say without getting into spoilers, but please trust me on this one and give it a read. I hesitate to say it's for everyone, because I know not everyone has the time and energy for something so demanding, but all I can say is that if anything I've mentioned so far sounds interesting to you, you won't be disappointed. Anyway, that's it for what I can say here. Spoilers below the cut.

okay okay okay where do I even start??

Alright, first off. Marie Quinn (Marion Wheeler in the original SCP version, but I'm gonna be using the new names here) is such a good protag. At first she comes off like your typical stone-cold hypercompetent secret agent archetype, which would have been more than fine for this type of story! But it turns out she's so much more. The way the details of her personal life, her interests, her quirks, and how much of that she has sacrificed over the years to be able to more effectively fight her war against 3125, all slowly come into focus over the course of the story, every new tidbit we glean was such a joy (and such a tragedy). The climax sees her ascend to the status of a pure, abstract Idea, but in a sense, she had begun that process long ago, slowly purging her being of anything that could distract her from her mission to protect humanity from the horrors that lurk. It's beautiful, and it's tragic, because we see how much it cost her.

...which brings me to Adam! I've long been absolutely head over heels for character like Camilla Hect or Riza Hawkeye, people who willingly choose to dedicate their life to the fulfillment of someone else's vision, because they believe in that other person more than anything else. The only source of unease were the gendered implications of these characters being usually women, so I was so delighted to finally find a male example! Adam Quinn, ultimate wife guy, set out on an impossible trek across a post-apocalyptic wasteland for a likely fruitless hope, all in the name of a woman he barely knew. Because she was the love of his life, even if he couldn't remember her, and because when he had no hope left for himself, he took on hers.

As I said above, it's so rare to find a straight romance that doesn't make me cringe, that isn't full of the same old stale gendered tropes replicated with zero critical thinking. Marie and Adam were such a breath of fresh air in that regard. Their dynamic doesn't so much invert gender roles as consciously refuse to engage with their logic. Sure, Marie is the more dispassionate of the two and has the more high-powered job, but that doesn't define her anymore than Adam's greater sensitivity and artistic career interest. They are clearly on the same wavelength intellectually and thoroughly respect each other's skills. And you truly get the sense of their chemistry before Marie completely retcons their marriage. Because yeah, that happens. And it's GREAT. I was so mad at Marie even though I Got what she was doing it. And for my Locked Tomb friends, yeah, there are strong shades of Harrow here (although unlike in HtN we actually figure out what she did relatively early so we aren't left scratching our heads about it for 80% of the book). And in the end, after Marie's death, it's Adam's memory of her that forms the bridge to resurrecting her as an idea capable of defeating (or rather, refuting) 3125. I was so fucking giddy when I read that (which wasn't ideal since I was reading before sleep, but it was so worth it).

Okay, enough about those two. Let's talk a bit more abstractly. Let's talk about ideas. Appropriately, the power of ideas is one of the key themes of the story. Ideas are real, have a tangible (if not material) existence that directly impacts our reality. We're balls deep in Platonic philosophy here, and I for one absolutely love it. I don't really agree with Plato anymore, but I still find his approach deeply stimulating and fascinating to contemplate. And this book examines its implications to the fullest. If ideas are real and shape the material world, something like 3125 (a bona fide mind virus!) feels almost inevitable. This implication is made all the more believable because we find out so little about what happens to the humans affected by 3125. Actually, the little we do see of them is a bit disappointing, in that it reads a bit too much like demonic possession or a zombie plague - things that, while potentially scary, are well within the realm of human conception. Thankfully, what really saves the immersion are the heavy redactions that follow any time we start seeing too much of 3125-influenced humans. Those redactions are really what preserves the sense of 3125 as something truly alien, something we couldn't possibly understand without falling under its influence in turn.

But there's even more to it. I was So glad when perusing the tag to find that someone had already pointed out that SCP-3125 seems to work a lot like fascism. I think the poster made their case well so I don't have much to add, but there's one additional element that I think makes the parallel all the more eerie. What does 3125 do when it's still too weak to manifest in its full form? It goes after the people who can stop it before it's too late. The curious. The vigilant. The critical thinkers. Anyone who comes to understand the threat it represents. So it targets them, removes them from the conversation before they have a chance to warn anyone else. And so, the rest of humanity goes on, unsuspecting, unaware that anything is even happening, until suddenly the fight is over before it even started. I don't want to force the parallel too much, because it's important that the idea 3125 represents is fundamentally unintelligible, but that doesn't mean it can't work as a metaphor for real-life, all-too-human ideas that unfortunately are fully capable of turning the world into a post-apocalyptic hellscape if left unchecked. Also, it's probably not for nothing that the original vector for the contagion was a Youtube streamer lol.

And finally, what can stop an idea, but a better idea? Until the end I had no idea how the story was going to credibly pull that off, but it works - it works perfectly, wonderfully. Of course the idea had to come from Marie (for the reasons above). And of course that idea has to revolve around the Foundation's mission statement (or, well, "the Organization", but we know). There is another fascinating theme lurking here, about the way in which we humans build complex social structures and institutions to protect ourselves from an inherently chaotic existence. Little bubbles of normality in a world that's anything but normal. I think deep down, one of the thing I always loved about the SCP universe was this underlying conceit that, even in a world full of unspeakable horrors and incomprehensible phenomena, the human spirit of trying to understand and contain the unknown remains. This fight might be doomed from the start (at this point the SCP wiki contains dozens upon dozens of anomalies that have in fact successfully ended the world as we know it) but that's not gonna stop us fighting it. And There Is No Antimemetics Division reminds us why we fight.

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