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Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

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Re: Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

#12

I jumped into the book after hearing all the buzz as it seemed like the big scifi hit of 2025. Killer premise and for the most part the fast pacing works... for the first third or so. But it you can feel the short story anthology vibe as it goes on and becomes practically a disconnected series of vignettes, and even the central idea itself loses cohesion. The Big Bad Thing has so many manifestations that it feels lik…

I actually liked all of it. It's slightly more cohesive than the original writing on the SCP website, which is structured as a series of short thematically linked reports. I get that style won't appeal to everyone though.

Still one of the more original bits of sci fi / horror to be published in a while, so a strong recommendation from me!

Re: Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

#13
post #9

Did anybody else find the original story mediocre stuff? Interesting premise, but neither novel nor that deep. PKD has done 100x with much less.

I loved the ideas! The premise was novel to me, and I also don't think I've encountered the same idea since (except for in reference to the original story). I'm not a fan of the writing style though. It's very stiff and heavy-handed, as if the writer's only goal is to setup the next twist. But I can't complain that much, it reminds me a lot of my own writing.

Re: Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

#15
post #9

Did anybody else find the original story mediocre stuff? Interesting premise, but neither novel nor that deep. PKD has done 100x with much less.

Indeed, it works fine as an introduction to a longer series, but on its own feels pretty unfulfilling.

I think the story where she detains her own husband would work much better in a stand-alone adaptation.

Re: Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

#17

Was this authorised by QNTM?

I think all SCP content is creative commons share alike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), so I don't think he actually needs to -- assuming this is based on SCP and not the book. I know the book had some revisions done to make it legally distinct from the SCP stories for copyright purposes.

Re: Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

#18
post #10
post #9

Did anybody else find the original story mediocre stuff? Interesting premise, but neither novel nor that deep. PKD has done 100x with much less.

I really liked it and all the little interesting ideas within it, like the antimimetic worms that live everywhere. I actually found it very creative and clever. However, I didn't think the recent rewrite was as much of an improvement as others seem to. The later parts were improved but I thought some of the padding out of earlier parts arguably came out worse. --- Edit: To give an actual example, Marion's description…

There were also some examples of sloppy editing in the updated edition, like multiple uses of the word "perimetre" which the author acknowledges was an 'incautious find-and-replace from the US English "meter" to UK English "metre"' https://qntm.org/antimemetics#komment6913d2eb6c240

Re: Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]

#20

Oh wow, They filmed it! Twice even! hn discussion about the written versions * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41224225 A different version by different director/actors: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-IiVeGAydE

I bet they filmed it way more than twice.
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