Oh that's you? I love the anti-memetics series.

Yep, that's me. And thank you!

I worked this out a couple of months ago. Seconding the antimemetics division series, it is my very favorite~

Is "CASE HATE RED" a broken link by accident, or is the implication that it is missing in-universe?

It just hasn't been written yet

that dang CASE HATE RED tease on the timeline. or have i already read it and forgot. oh god i said that as a joke but a chapter legitimately missing from the story because 3125 would be amazing and infuriating

also I understand why Immemorial worked better without the silly conversation with the totem-thing but it was still amusing.

Yes, "CASE HATE RED" is the planned title of the next part. As a general rule I will not lie directly to you readers about what's going on in the story. There isn't, like, a kayfabe thing going on here. It's disappointing about the conversation with SCP-8473, but you wouldn't believe how much material I throw out for most of these chapters. Actually, what's most disappointing is that that segment was intended more as sad than silly, highlighting that Wheeler doesn't really have a personal life, or any friends or loved ones. They are all gone, and she's retroactively been a total loner for years and years, and she doesn't even realise how much she's lost. Anyway, what with the rest of the chapter, that prologue was irrelevant and distracting. Sometimes you have to get brutal and cut perfectly good content because it isn't appropriate to the tone of everything else. Film editors make equally tough calls all the time. It may come back in some form. I'm working on it.

I too quite enjoyed reading the antimemetics series a few months ago without realizing who had written it (or even that they were all by the same person). Is there a way to get an RSS feed of updates?

The SCP Foundation wiki has an RSS feed of most recently-created pages here: http://www.scp-wiki.net/feed/pages/pagename/most-recently-created/category/_default/tags/-admin/rating/%3E%3D-15/order/created_at+desc/limit/30/t/Most+Recently+Created But it's high-volume feed and statistically very few of those new entries will be Antimemetics stuff or by me. You can also follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/qntm But again I tweet about a lot of things which aren't new Antimemetics Division stuff. If you have an SCP Foundation Wiki account, you could try "watching" this page for changes: http://www.scp-wiki.net/antimemetics-division-hub This will send you emails, not put anything into an RSS feed. But recently I've found that watching pages doesn't seem to work...? Sorry I can't be of more help.

oh yeah i definitely got that the 8473 conversation was supposed to be tragic. i just found it darkly humorous because i'm a bad person. and I understand needing to be brutal in editing. All this month, for nanowrimo, i've been realizing which fun things will probably not survive a revsion shortly after i've churned them out.

I guess this means it's time I started reading SCP Foundation stuff~ Well. I'm *tempted* to, anyway. There's a *lot* of stuff there, right? I don't really have time to be reading something as big as Homestuck. But, if the antimemetics stories are self contained then I may read those on their own.

Lemma, I would read at least a few SCP entries just to get a feel for the grimdarkness of the world, then dive into the Antimemetics Division Hub. The main arc following Marion Wheeler is great. There's another antimemetics story arc that isn't written by Sam, and it's pretty good as well.

I've been following your antimemetics work pretty much since SCP-055's first inception. Fell in love with the idea of an antimeme from the start. I was thrilled when the antimemetics division stories were released (YEARS later).

I've always thought that everything outside of the anti-memetics tales was made by different people. That even you were inspired by SCP-055 to make it. Learning that you were behind every awesome antimeme is, erm, woah... It's kinda amazing.

Well, there's the better part of 4500 main-list "objects" by now, and a huge scad of various canon and not-quite-canon add-on tales, all of which can vary from about one printed page of text to the equivalent of a short novel... not to mention all the joke, explained and decomissioned articles, the logs of extranormal items/events/places, personnel files, everything to do with the non-foundation Groups Of Interest, all the international divisions, etc. And of course the List Of Things Dr Bright Is No Longer Allowed To Do At The Foundation. It can be pretty daunting even for a longtime fan trying to keep up with it, let alone a newbie. There is a "top rated" list on the site, however, IIRC, as well as a curated page dedicated to "the classics" which are largely those items which kicked off the whole idea when they started appearing on 4chan's /x/ board. Some of them are grimdark, others come under just plain weird, or even kinda funny, as well as some that are pretty deep psych horror and really shouldn't be read late at night when you're alone in a dark house unless you have a strong mental constitution. Though thankfully the one which had a flavour image which did something bizarre and primal to my hindbrain and induced instant inhuman terror has long since been consigned to the bin because the attached article was actually a bit shit. I might have a little troll through later on and pull out some of the lighter or easier to grok favourites... but, honestly, if your intent IS to read the entire thing, that WILL be a Homestuck level mission because of the sheer amount of material. I'm nowhere near close to that and don't intend to ever get there. The sheer amount of stuff being written and added to the site on a weekly basis would take up most if not all of a typical person's free reading time.

correction: the curated page is the "Heritage Collection". Definitely worth a visit if you're new to it all.

+tahrey Challenge accepted

Nice one! Still, where's the anticognitohazards?

Great stories. I await CASE HATE RED. Also I notice something. 55 is the first antimemetic by publication date, and 3125 is 5^5. Did you plan this?

SCP-055 was written in 2008. I didn't start work on the Antimemetics Division concept until 2015, so the connection with Fifthism, the number 5 and the number 3125 must not have happened until some time after then. So it's just a happy coincidence. It was just the earliest unassigned number which was available at the time. It could very easily have been SCP-067 or whatever (and that wouldn't have affected anything).

I was amused by the surname of Bart *Hughes*. But that name is from 055, so it has to be a coincidence. Right? Do you even recall ever having met the author who picked out that name? On an unrelated note, there's only one Bart Hughes famous enough for Wikipedia, and he's famous for self-trepanation.

I appreciate this post getting bumped whenever you post an update. That way, it's a little easier to check whether a new antimemetics story was posted. Also, absolutely loved case hate red!

Just tell me one thing. I won't ask if this story is going to have a happy end, but will it at least have a, a *non-eldritch* end?

This story will definitely have an end.

My feeling is that Adam Wheeler is going to have his "People in this division are as competent on day one as they'll ever be" moment coming up shortly. I'm wondering if the Samsara cavalry are going to be coming for him.

Just hacked into the SCP-3125 containment (that's a lovely bit of set decoration, I must say), and read the final note. I am even more eager to read the next chapter, when it comes out.

Having now read Ara Orun, looks like I was pretty close. Welcome to the Foundation, Mister Wheeler. This is your first day.

I'm back, QNTM. Just call me AGM or The Apocalyptic. I have a K-class scenario idea. RK-class 682 Invulnerability Events happen when the aforementioned SCP survives one of the following: a nuclear blast, a gravitational singularity, direct contact with antimatter, or another sufficiently dangerous K-class scenario, such as GK-class Hostile Greenhouse or QK-class Quantum Degeneracy. By definition, an Omega-K-class End of Death scenario would be the ideal situation in which an RK-class occurs, since the former causes the latter to be more easily resolved.

I think this site might have some anti-mimetic properties. I remember enjoying reading its contents, but a day later I cannot recall anything about them...

Finally managed to join the Foundation! Look for stuff by The Apocalyptic!

Every so often I re-discover the fact that you authored SCP-055 and proceed to re-forget that fact. I think this is irony of some sort.

Wonderful as always, and always worth the wait.

LOL Ciber & Xander. You two may be right, tiough. I almosu forgot about the skip when looking at this page, but an editorial anomaly of unknown orign made the skip in question #0048, not #0055 (or #0048-J).

*though *almost

Hates the thought of being uploaded, check. Put a Do Not Upload instruction into his will, check. Got uploaded into a germ... check. Just another day at the Foundation for The Germ Formerly Known As Bart Hughes.

2256 is a good SCP. I’m happy that you mentioned it. ...I reread the page for 2256 and there are blacked out parts that I don’t remember. Did you add the black bars later?

4766 mentions a *quote* QNTM-type memetic analysis engine *unquote*. Your doing?

I lurk past your sandbox periodically out of interest in your writing process. An alternate interpretation of one of the lines in your current work under revision gave me a very vivid impression that there are now a number of other uploaded Foundation germs working alongside Hughes by now.

Do you have any plans for what you'll write for the Foundation after 55555 is done? Or do you even plan to at all, for that matter? Whatever the case, I'm excited to see where you go next.

Hey, I love your works. Thanks for the read, and I hope to continue the story of the antimemetics division in the future.

Hiya, just re-read the whole series for the nth time. Much love, I hope you keep going with it. Ironically, I don't even remember how long ago it was that I first started reading your content. Still, as ever, hyped to see it's conclusion. I'm sure it'll be memorable.

It was once believed that ideas were bulletproof, but the SCP Foundation's done some pretty impressive ballistics research since then.

Having reread Tombstone, I see that my prior comment about other Foundation researchers was generally correct in spirit, but not so much "alongside Hughes" as "inside Hughes".

Broken link: "Champions of Nothing" leads to the page for "Tombstone".

Is just reread SCP-2256, and I'm curious: are the Maikitian words given in the article ("Maikiti" itself, "teùkoka", and "polo'ongakau") based on actual Polynesian roots?

Wow, I remember reading up to Your Last First Day three or four years ago when I first discovered SCP. After I read Ra and Fine Structure, I had no idea the author was the same. Glad I'm here to read it all the way to the end.

I have to know, is C. gigantes referring to themselves as "They Who Walk Very Slowly" a Guardians of the Galaxy Drax reference?

No, I don't understand that reference, sorry. Also, "The Ones Who Walk Very Slowly" is not C. gigantes' name for themselves, it is the name given to them by Polynesian natives who first observed them in the wild.

Glorious. I've read pretty much everything on qntm.org, and obviously all of There Is No Antimemetics Division and Five Five Five Five Five. Between Fine Structure, Ra, and what I can only think to call the Wheeler Tales, I see a whole lot of interrelated themes and elements reconfigured in different contexts; and I think this is the best iteration yet.

As much as I am not usually into the SCP universe, I have to admit - that was a very satisfying story. Keep writing! I will buy whatever you publish, and I would support you on Patreon if you ever get around to making one.

Just bought the ePub. I have been browsing the SCP wiki for nine years and this is probably the best thing I’ve ever read on there. I can’t remember the last time I saw a writer introduce and juggle so many fresh, new sci fi concepts so effortlessly. What a beautiful ending as well. Thank you qntm.

Just curious, do you plan on also adding the (scrapped) content you made for the SCP describing that one blocked-away-due-to-memetic-threat universe to this page at some point? Or if it's still floating around somewhere, where would I find it?

I just binged through the whole thing in one sitting. It is, without an iota of exaggeration, the best thing on that site. I was hooked from the moment Wheeler first explains what an antimeme is to the moment that she becomes the nuke. How you managed to make compelling a story where half the chapters end with the characters forgetting the chapter is beyond me, but you did it The ending in particular, with the "Kill an idea with a better idea" thing, is absolutely brilliant. the SCP Foundation can be a bleak, cynical place, but this story is a reminder that it is ultimately hopeful. It's right there in the Secure, Contain, Protect. It is a noble mission, a good idea, an idea that can beat 3125. An idea that Marion believes so powerfully that she can be the seed of the meme nuke. And in the end, it is Adam's belief in Marion, and her ideas, that make the meme nuke real. The one problem I had with it were the ghosts. The ghosts were a pretty brilliant addition that initially made me go "Really? Meme ghosts?" but eventually I got sold on. Soon my mind was soon racing to "Ghost Marion! Ghost Marion!" and seeing her get to Heaven while brain-damaged was gut-wrenching". Sadly in the end they were left kinda inconsequential, shunted out of the story when Sam took the reins back, serving only to relay some instructions to Adam. I suppose that is par for the course for the antimemetics division, but still, I feel the story ultimately suffered slightly for their inclusion. I understand this is a side effect of the multiple authorship, but as a unified work it leaves some aspects of the whole thing lacking. Let me sandwich that criticism with more praise. I loved the meta aspects, from the way that Adam goes on an extended Wiki Walk that will mirror most readers' introduction to the Foundation to the way that the only way to defeat this ultimate embodiment of hopelessness and defeat is with the very idea of the Foundation itself. You are clearly a man who understands the appeal of the Foundation. Thank you for the good words.

What worries me, is that I've just bought this for my kindle. I make a point of buying qntm rather than reading it on the website... but I'm sure I've already read it. And it isn't on my amazon account.

small issue, but is the description for the first part of the Antimemetics playlist cut off? as of now it reads "This playlist provides a soundtrack for the entire Antimemetics Division saga, starting with SCP-055 and finishing with the epilogue, Champions Of Nothing. Each" each what?

Each what what? Your Spotify client might be truncating the description.

I don't know - the last word in the description (as I see it through the Android app) is just "Each" without anything after it. is the description more complete on your end?

You are an incredible writer. Definitely got me hooked. beautiful story.

Great book. Just bought it on Amazon. Waiting for the next. Who are you people? Why am I typing here?

I just finished your antimemetics division entries and enjoyed every single one of it. Thank you for sharing this well-written story with us!

Damn this is amazing, i just had an idea of making an Antimemetic Division story where you as you read something and scroll down there are excerpts of the story that disappear and you cant see if you go back.

I just hope I dont forget about it

Just wanted to say I've no prior SCP familiarity but read "There Is No Antimemetics Division" on recommendation from a friend and absolutely loved it. Thank you for Marion Wheeler. Am enjoying the playlist right now, looking forward to checking out more of your work.

Just somehow stumbled upon the story on SCP wiki- wow, what a read! Amusingly, I've only now just realized that I've been a long-time accidental fan of yours. Every year or two I find some excellent fiction and eventually find out that it came from here! Anyway, thanks for writing such a wild story. Reading it I feel a bit like some of the characters in the story, trying to grok ideas that are too big to fit in my skull. It's a neat feeling.

Another thing: I was wondering about something specific, the origin of your usage of 'wild light'. It seemed like a cool phrase, it's kinda evocative of... something. So I looked it up, and filtering by date to go back in time I eventually found this: https://ashberyhouse.yale.edu/blessing-disguise It's a poem, in particular it has these two passages: " That seem to shine at me through a lattice toward you. If the wild light of this January day is true I pledge me to be truthful unto you Whom I cannot ever stop remembering. Remembering to forgive. Remember to pass beyond you into the day On the wings of the secret you will never know. Taking me from myself, in the path Which the past girth of the day has assigned to me." This really reminds me of that final scene where Wheeler becomes WILD LIGHT. Coincidence or intentional?

This whole series is brilliant! Every time I read this it's like experiencing it for the first time.

Huge inspiration.

During the 1940s, the (civilian) military code-maker Leo Marks devised and taught a technique for self-inducing an amnesia for a specific topic. He describes this in "Between Silk and Cyanide." Unfortunately, he made himself forget the specifics of the technique. (I am not invoking Borges.)

I have absolutely no recollection of how I found this in the internet. In any case, my interest was caught and I bought the whole thing, not just the first three chapters. Can't wait to read all things to the end. This is my entire comment for now.

Is there any way to get a paperback copy without using Amazon?

Currently, no.

Hello qntm, I wanted to leave a review for your work because I just finished reading it (even though I started years ago, this is my 6th rereading but this time, finally, your work is done): I loved your work from the beginning, but now that I've read the end, it really left a bitter taste in my mouth. I want to offer sincere criticism and references, so I'm sorry if this ends up being a bit too long. In storytelling there are themes, plot devices and characters. Your plot devices are certainly fantastic and attractive. The idea of antimemetics is delicious food for thought and you manage to keep it fresh through unreliable storytelling and scattered exposition that makes the reader feel like a detective, only empowered by the interlinked nature of SCP as a whole. Reading is never just "reading your story" but also going to 055 and 033 and Conterconceptual tales and Nootropic explanations in a way that I suspect only came to you down the road. But this is as far as my praises go. The themes of hopelessness and unknowable horror are at their strongest when hinted, I personally felt like the hellscape you described in the post apocalyptic chapters of your exposition turned out rushed and raw. Where I expected a feeling of loss and grief, the only thing conveyed was boredom and lostness. This ultimately boils down to your intentional killing of every "meaningful" character to the point where only Adam survives. And I recognize and appreciate it, but still think you made a fatal flaw in characterizing him. Where his tenacity and uniqueness could have made him the perfect antihero, representative of The Foundation's monotonous approach to protagonism and protection, a nearly perfect stand-in for their lifeless, gray and brutalist take on heroism; he just is booed as irrelevant, insufficient and "weird". That's it, just weird. How is a viewer supposed to take "weird" at face value when they've been exposed to digitized gored people, invisible mammoths and the most over-the-top end-of-the-world you could possibly come up with? Nonetheless, that point is well made. Let me move on to the unresolved plot hooks well exposed by others in comments before, such as the origin of the arachnids, the survival of Bart Hughes, the entire existence of the Conterconceptual Division and the creation of phlebotiniums such as mnestics, DROs and Ghosts. I understand the limitations of writing as a writer myself, but after everything is said and done, you leave behind a body of work more held together by duct tape and good feelings than a coherent sci fi story that can be studied and understood as is. It is a shame and I can only wish you develop your themes better in the future. Finally, characters suffer from flashback syndrome not in that there are too many flashbacks, but rather in that they shine hardest through flashbacks. You have managed to do the opposite of what Asimov did with his Foundation, where he set up strong characters to save mankind in key moments of history by sacrificing pacing, you set up a strong pacing where mankind is saved across generations of "survivalistic defeats" by sacrificing what could have been of your characters, trading their lives and charm to set up your big bad which, truth be told, didn't need all that sacrifice when it already stands on such a strong argument/premise. I am saddened to agree with Amazon reviewers on this one. Your work is a promise of great things to come, but the ending feels so rushed and the building of themes falls so flat in the end that despite all my love for your epic work, I can't claim it left a strong enough sensation for me to forgive everything I have communicated to you in this review. I hope this comment finds you in good health and that you gain useful insight from my words. I'll add a PS in a next comment so as to not make this behemoth any larger, thank you for reading.

PS: Amazon readers are right, please add some trigger warnings to your description if you are to publish this work outside of SCP spheres. It is a very basic courtesy which everybody deserves, I think. PSS: I can't not suggest to you one work which I loved which has been the best conveyance of "post-apocalyptic hopelessness" I have ever read in any work ever. It is called "Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter, if there is any work I could ever offer to you it would be that one. I hope it gives you a different perspective on how to tell a story about, in your own words, "it being way too late to do anything to stop what's happening." (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-13428665/champions-of-nothing#post-4689528) Thank you for everything, once again.

Thank you for your constructive feedback. I do appreciate it. Adam is intended to be a relatively privileged moderate -- an Arthur Dent-style middle-class everyman who is oblivious to the oncoming apocalypse because nothing in his life has ever really affected him negatively. He's *intended* to be a weak character, who lacks the tools to do anything meaningful about what happens to his world. He's never needed to fight for anything in his life. So the best he can do is find a stronger character to do it for him. Almost all of the unresolved plot hooks you mentioned have been left that way intentionally. I could easily explain all of this -- for example, the arachnids are, like SCP-2256, a naturally-occurring component of Earth's antimemetic biosphere which SCP-3125/Red took and put to work -- but these explanations would mostly just take up word count and add little to the story. Where mnestics come from, how they were developed, isn't relevant to the story. Some of these omissions are intended to give the reader the same sensation that the characters have, the feeling of being thrown into a situation without necessary context, and having to sink or swim -- learn fast or die from confusion. By the way, you mentioned the Counterconceptual Division as an unresolved plot hook -- in fact I never mentioned the Counterconceptual Division in the book (I wanted to, but never found the appropriate moment for it), and I don't know what a DRO is. I think you may have confused some other SCP contributors' content with my own? As for Amazon reviews... I try to avoid reading reviews. Reviews are not directed at authors, they're directed at fellow readers. It's not a dialogue, and it's not generally appropriate for an author to respond directly to a review, so reading the review without being able to respond can be intensely frustrating, so I just don't. Please can you elaborate further on the trigger warnings you'd like to see on this story? Or rather, what content in the book you think needs to be flagged. As I say, because I don't read reviews, this is the first I'm hearing of this.

thank you for the fast reply. Your synopsis on Amazon indicates nothing of the gore and horror to be found within your body of work. Thus, readers come in expecting a psychological thriller but end up finding visceral macabre eldritchian nightmare fuel. Warning them of it would be appreciated. I must fight your understanding of Adam, though. He becomes quite the charming damsel-in-distress through your exposition, less "a privileged, average nobody" and more "the one that got away". It's almost as if the story itself is trying to oppose him from being protagonistic. If this were the pataphysics division, he'd certainly be Archetypal. He resists all attempts the big bad throws at him to delete him from the story, survives because of that unique mutation he possesses from birth, and has just enough know-how (camping, logic, emotional intelligence) to be a worthy recipient of luck and every last effort the Foundation can bequeath through his doomed timeline. Thus, even if you say he's "intended" to be weak, he is in practice your last protagonist, and by the virtue of so, gains the second-strongest characterization of any of your characters (first is his wife, obviously). To the reader, it really feels like he's a hero of legend, an acceptable stand-in for all of us common people, a perfect vantage point for mankind as a whole to the point all Foundation personnel feels anomalous/alien. I beg of you to reconsider his standing, if not through retcons and tweaks, at least for future works his legacy within your mindscape may inspire. He really does deserve more credit, you have done wonderfully by him, save the ending. PS: DRO being related to 3125 was an assumption of mine, sorry if I was mistaken. There are just so many similarities i couldn't help myself, the link is as follows: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/apas/offset/4

I really truly do think that any great work of fiction only works by generating emotions and catharsis in its viewers. Of course the plot and the characters are the medium, but both of them, every single component in a story, is a slave to the themes. Theming is the art of finding real problems and narratives that our minds, souls and hearts desperately need to relate to. Loss is a theme. Death is a theme. Passion and hubris are themes. But in your case, the antimemetics storyline deals with the theme of existential dread. There exists a question so unknowable, so unfathomable that the mere event of contemplating it seriously breaks through all of our defenses, leaves us naked, mad, wounded against it and the only thing we can do is forget it and hide by doing our best to never remember the fact it is there. This question is "what is the meaning of my life" or "what am i going to do with my life" or "why am i alive" or however resonates the most with you. This is the question of existential dread. To depressed/anxious people (such as myself), the thought of life during a depressive/anxious episode sends us into panic/suicidal attacks by the sheer magnitude of our failures, of our insignificance in the face of "being worthy" of life. I can't speak for other people's experiences for I do not truly know them (I have not lived them) but I really truly do believe everybody experiences existential dread to some degree. And just as well, I really truly do believe that the only way to deal with existential dread, that unanswerable question, is to focus on the IDEA that we are enough. We will never "truly" be enough. But those of you that manage to defeat existential dread do it by creating an idea stronger than the fact that life is infinitely bigger and scarier than any of us, the idea that you are just as big and bad and can deal with it all. But those of us who haven't been able to muster such an idea yet, all we can do is hide in videogames or drugs or sleep trying desperately to forget about it over and over and over. Knowing we are defenseless and desperately in pain about it, knowing there can be no answer, only suffering, from facing that truth. I really truly do think that works of fiction that eschew their theming and lose sight of what they're supposed to talk about (catharsis, deep feelings) are cheapened by the emotional disconnection and fail to move in comparison to those that are well themed. I hope this makes sense to you, and that you like all the great science fiction authors before you, realize that both the way to write bestsellers AND the way to better the world you were born in is to talk about reality. Even through fantasy, fiction, science or horror. Thank you for all the feelings.

hi

Thank you so much for the Antimemetics series - by far my favorite thing I've read on the SCP wiki. I loved the creativity, clarity of style and characterization of all the stories. The horror elements were incredibly well done and will stick with me for the rest of my life. I know I'll never be able to read the word "digitized" the same way again. Marion and Adam's story was perfectly heartbreaking, and I loved their goodbye scene especially. Bravo on making something so excellent!

Just want to say I love your book There Is No Antimemetics Division. Your writing just breaks my brain.

Some friends & I recently held a discussion of There Is No Antimemetics Division. If you're interested, you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/gRKBL8f7wQ4

On possibly the 7th or 8th reread, found this page looking for the deleted scene for SCP-8473. Just want to thank you for creating such a wonderful series.

In your There Is No Antimemetics Division Spotify playlist it says that each chapter has one or more assigned tracks. Do you have a list that specifies which tracks are assigned to which chapters? I can't find it anywhere. I want to get the intended experience so it's important to me.

OPENING TITLE CARD / SCP-055 65daysofstatic, "Heat Death Infinity Splitter" We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five Disasterpeace, "Pressure" Introductory Antimemetics Onohtrix Point Never, "Sticky Drama" Unforgettable, That's What You Are Chromatics, "Yes (Love Theme From Lost River)" Nostalghia, Tyler Bates, "Fool" CASE COLOURLESS GREEN Radiohead, "Climbing Up the Walls" Your Last First Day Cloudkicker, "Push It Way up!" Portishead, "Roads" SCP-2256 M83, "Gone" SCP-3125 Joy Division, "I Remember Nothing" Where Have You Been All My Life Clint Mansell, "Waves Crashing on Distant Shores of Time" Fresh Hell Northlane, "Rot" Eric Prydz, "Sunset At Café Mambo" Ojai Noah Hawley, Jeff Russo, "White Rabbit" Immemorial Mord Fustang, "The Morning After The Morning After Pill" CASE HATE RED Mac Quayle, "1.5_6-veraliber4ted.aiff" The Moth Gatherer, "Attacus Atlas" Ará Orún Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "The Dead Flag Blues" Unthreaded Silver Mt. Zion, "This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird's Fallen" Wild Light Solar Fields, "Gridnodes" Blood/Brain TesseracT, "Survival" Tombstone Sinoia Caves, "Run Program: Sentionauts" CHVRCHES, "Miracle" Epilogue: Champions Of Nothing Berlinist, "In Your Hands" CLOSING CREDITS Matthew Good, "Champions of Nothing"

I read this many years ago, before it was complete, and followed it as it was updated. It captivated me- it's something I recommend to friends and catch myself thinking about at the oddest times. It's one of my favorite works of science fiction. I'm commenting now because I just finished reading Philip K Dick's "Ubik" and I was wracking my brain wondering why the plot felt so engaging in such a familiar way. Then I remembered this work! Did you happen to draw inspiration from this work, or have you read it at all? If not, I highly recommend it.

I am so late to the party, but I shotgunned There Is No Antimemetics Division and 55555 in one sitting. And then Mr. 3125 showed up in my dreams. Survived it though. I think I have met one or two men like 3125's avatar — and lost loved ones to them — which is part of why it resonated with me. Powerfully magnetic and utterly disgusting cult leaders, small-time demagogues with egos the size of extradimensional memeplexes. Then you turn on the news and you realize these people are heads of state, military leaders, celebrities, right-wing talking heads... the fascism allegory hits like a sack of bricks, and I mean that in a good way. Also, you really hit the nail on the head with your depiction of grief and trauma, and how they will just utterly destroy your memory. You don't remember anything at all until all of a sudden something triggers just the right synapse, and all your repressed memories come tumbling out, and all of a sudden it's far far too much for your monkey brain. But after the second wave of grief bowls you over, you find that person isn't gone, they're an idea you carry with you to fight through the next day of hell. And the next.

Amazing work. I couldn't put it down. Wish I could take one of their drugs and read it again the first time. Thank you that experience.

Was just about to ask for a breakdown of the playlist into chapters when i saw it had already been done! I’m on my 21st read of TINAD and still discovering more each time. This book and your others have brought me such a great amount of joy and your writing style is just fantastic. Thanks for the great book qntm:)

My pleasure. That is a lot of reads! It might be time to read something else??

Look!!!!! It’s a really good book!! I guess i’ll have to start re-reading the others now.

According to the timeline on the wiki, and also Where Have You Been All My Life, Adam and Marion have been married for 17 years as of 2015. In We Need to Talk about Fifty-Five, also dated to 2015, O5-8 noted that Marion is the mother of two children, both boys. Presumably they’re both minors unless both children were born prior to their marriage, which would put the upper limit on their age at 20. Adam never mentioned either of their children at the time, and I’m reasonably confident there are no other references to them in the work. Should I imagine the worst?

How does it feel to write a masterpiece like this?<br/>Where do you go from here? <br/><br/>I would be intimidated, but I supposed you have a little more experience.

Hakurei06, I remember noticing that too! I love that it’s only ever mentioned once, just a small tragic seed right at the very beginning.

I'm on... much more than my 21st read of this by now, between the SCP, the ebook, and here. I come back to it when I'm having a bad time, reread bits and pieces and then inevitably get sucked into carrying on till the end. I first discovered it when I was suicidal, in the early stages of transitioning and treatment for PTSD, in the first steps of burning my whole life to the ground because it had become unlivable in the same slow, creeping, imperceptible way that Alastair Grey would have taken it from me. All of my old life, the person I was, vanished into that hole, and there was nothing left... but I was still alive. I couldn't understand why. I couldn't understand how to even BEGIN building myself from nothing. That's when I found this story. That's when I started saying to myself in moments of terror and incoherence, "This is not your first day. Start from here and trust yourself. Don't stop thinking." It's why I still tear up when Adam signs himself, "Still surviving, despite everything." This story has become a structural pillar to the new person I've built in this body since then. It's funny that Adam trekking across a blasted hellscape under a broken sky is sort of my happy place... the place I go when I'm wobbling internally and need fortification. The idea that subjective continuity is not required, that "identity and authenticity are not equivalents", that this person I am now is me because I have built it to be so, from scratch, out of what I had to hand... these ideas are core to the wider absurdist worldview that has kept me alive. They were of course not totally unprecedented in my experience, but you gave me words for them, and a way to think about the self that does not require a coherent through-line from birth to death in order to be valid. "We are all of us different people from day to day." Our forward light cone is all that matters - what is possible from here. We don't need to justify what happens next with everything that ever happened before. It's okay that we forget, and that we change, even transform - memories are not what we're made of. So, thank you for this. For helping me save my own life, as awkward as I'm sure that is to hear. Thank you from the person I was who died in 2016, and the person who's here now, happier than ever in an ill-fitting skin suit, and from Future Me, for every time I revisit it. Apologies for the essay, but... well, you wrote a whole pile of words for us, so I thought it only courteous to return the favor.