There Is No Antimemetics Division
by qntm (pen name of Sam Hughes)
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted April 1, 2026
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This is not an easy book to describe or analyze. I wanted to post this yesterday but had too many other things to do, so it is only coincidental that it is now April Fools Day. Or maybe it isn't a coincidence. There are a lot of confusing things about it, one of them being the characters themselves are confused and forgetful many times throughout. It also jumps around in time and place, shifting the focus onto different characters in various situations. The style is understandable, even if particulars of the plot are not, when you realize this is a revised and expanded version of material previously written for a collaborative wiki project, the SCP Foundation, which operates under a Creative Commons license, with work from many contributors. The novel is the work of only one of them, Sam Hughes, a British programmer whose fiction is published under the pen name qntm (pronounced quantum). The SCP wiki began in 2008, but qntm's contributions didn't start until January 2015, with later additions up to June 2020, then later offered in print-on-demand paperbacks. It received enough attention that it was acquired by Del Rey in the UK, and Ballantine in the US. I assume it was for contractual and copyright reasons that certain things were changed, including character names, as well as the secretive group being the U-Organization instead of the SCP.
One of the easiest ways to understand at least part of the story is to watch a short film with the same title, which is part of the Dust series on YouTube. It was released more than a year before the full novel, with qntm credited as one of the writers, along with Adria Lang, who also directed. It retains the SCP Foundation as the secretive group. Depending where your search takes you, the acronym means either Special Containment Procedures, or maybe just the Foundation's motto, Secure-Contain-Protect, as seen at the beginning of the short film. There have been other films, both before and after the one offered by Dust. Jasika Nicole, whom I know from the great Fringe TV series, is Marion Wheeler, although in the book it is Marie Quinn, whose maiden name is Sheridan. The film is essentially the same as the book's first chapter, titled "Induction."
In the book, the U of the organization's name stands for Unknown, and the various entities they study or defend against begin with a U, followed by a number. One central to the plot is U-4987, which is the memory eating one that Marion in the film says she has made a pet, and that she feeds it on inconsequential thoughts such as reality TV, so that it doesn't consume more important things like her passwords, or how to make coffee. The major one they need to defend against is U-3125, which everyone in the organization fears, if they are aware of it at least. Some memetics are kept for study, contained in shielded rooms, but U-3125 is everywhere, even if it isn't detected. The only way to escape it is to go into a shielded room and keep it outside. The pill Marion talks about in the video is known as a mnestic, one that helps an agent to remember things that memetic entities might have tried to remove from their memories. Alternately, amnestic drugs are used to remove memories if harmful memetic entities are encountered. Marie met her future husband Adam while investigating U-8051. Adam had a unique ability to see a memetic naturally, plus he handled himself admirably in resisting the memetic's actions. Later, when Marie explains things to him, he equates memetics with fnords, which he knows from The Illuminatus! Trilogy, books I have not read, but Wikipedia says the word has been used in newsgroup and hacker culture to indicate irony, humor, or Surrealism.
Which brings us back around to the notion it might not be coincidence I am writing this on April 1. If you haven't figured it out yet, the words memetic and antimemetic derive from the base word meme. It is common these days for memes to go viral quickly, consuming the thoughts of many people, and some produce harmful results. I have no idea which meme qntm was thinking about with U-3125, but I know which I was thinking of while reading. Not just one meme, but any and all associated with MAGA, which I consider a disease that is threatening the country, and the entire world, with dangerous, cancerous ideas. Only it won't be defeated by entering a shielded room and ignoring it, so what is the solution? Whatever mnestic you choose to take, make sure it is not one that dulls your senses. You have to think clearly if the memetic is to be defeated. Of course, that is just my thoughts, the intention may have been something else entirely. If so, then the joke was on me. In spite of the frequent confusion, and a conclusion that is anti-climactic, I did enjoy it, and can recommend.
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