There Is No Antimemetics Division

by

eBook

English language

Published Nov. 11, 2025 by Penguin.

ISBN:
978-1-80495-476-8
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(from back cover)

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 tried: 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.

9 editions

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Ngl this got so convoluted I kinda checked out halfway through. The power creep of the threats is just kinda like.., yeah I mean how do u deal with a world ending congnitohazard that has eaten all of humanity? I found the less threatening scps way more fun to think about. Also it has the classic horror thing of the monster not being scary once you show it. Especially when the threat is a literal CONCEPT, whyyyy are u making me think of a white guy in his 20s?

The book is really well written, the dialogue is good, easily leagues above most SCP writings (which is yknow. Why this is published and most of the stuff is on the archive or Reddit or whatever). The concept of the book is by its very nature impossible to understand, and trying to put it into words is a cool attempt, but …

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Really enjoyed this. If you're a fan of urban type horror or unknowable cosmic threads give this a go. If you've played Alan Wake or Control, you might appreciate this too.

I enjoyed the fragmented / short story style and much preferred reading them collated here in a book rather than on the SCP wiki.

Some cool tech - I especially enjoyed the concept of a drug that temporarily reverses old age (and therefore memory loss) at the cost of a whiplash effect when it wears off.

Imagining ideas that are so alien or transdimensional that our brains literally cannot handle them is very compelling. I got turned around throughout these stories that I wasn't entirely sure what happened in what order but I love the idea of humans fighting a war they can't even remember.