Forget about it.
Read The Raw Shark Texts instead.
Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
221–230 of 243 posts
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#222I just finished this book and complained about it the whole time. The prose is amateur and peppered with cliches (e.g. you should be fined for publishing the phrase "their suit was so sharp it could cut"). His attempt to write about the inner thoughts of the characters was pretty simple. The descriptions of violence and horror also felt child-like, especially the dialogue during those moments (e.g. Redd's introductio…
//I just finished this book and complained about it the whole time
Outside of the wonderful introductory set-up and the initial inverted set-piece of 'Your first day', there is little for the book to recommend itself as a piece of literature outside of some of its overall theme and motifs. This is particularly evident in the third act of the book which originally tied in a number of other SCP entries, and feels rightfully as if the best of it was left on the editing room floor.
The author (qntm) displays clear talent and original spark, but his strength seems to lie in the short-form. A book of short-stories in the Asimovian tradition is something I would like to see in the future - Dr. Marion Wheeler already being a Dr. Susan Calvin archetype.
// Personally, the redaction technique got boring fast when he would take up entire pages of the book to convey absent memories. He could use his words to convey this instead of black-boxes.
Much of the allure of the SCP Foundation as a group-writing exercise is derived from the medium and overall conceit. At its worst this manifests as poorly comprehended replication of narrative devices from 'House of Leaves', or charting the shallows of Lovecraftian fanfiction.
That said, the use of redaction to create 'nightmare fuel' is a well-recognised and appreciated trope and somewhat of a hallmark of the series. If anything, it helps presents the work itself as a more credible literary proposition - in the vein of Irvine Welsh's 'Filth' - compared with some of the other genuine contrivances present.
'Pedantique's Proposal' is a wonderful example of the SCP format grasp exceeding its reach as a piece of interactive fiction, whilst serving as the sort of love letter to the canon and ethos of SCP that qntm was clearly trying to convey.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a huge fan of SCP, or at least early day SCP. The problem I've found with a number of the longer form sagas is that they tend to rely on world-ending apocalyptic events (which really does get boring, it's not high stakes any more) and are heavily anime-coded. The authors do put in a great deal of effort, which is laudable, but it does make me wonder if the writing style and story telling is a deliberate choice, o…
Tangential but that is exactly my problem with Warhammer 40K. I want to get into its lore so bad, but I feel every event is a catastrophe of galactic proportions that somehow is even worse than the previous one that I just am unable to suspend my disbelief. Yeah it’s meant to be over the top, but you can’t start a story at 11 and make people care when you turn it up to 12 and then 13. The amateur fantasy writers that…
Games Workshop: Powerscaling like drunken teenagers since September 1987.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#224I just finished this book and complained about it the whole time. The prose is amateur and peppered with cliches (e.g. you should be fined for publishing the phrase "their suit was so sharp it could cut"). His attempt to write about the inner thoughts of the characters was pretty simple. The descriptions of violence and horror also felt child-like, especially the dialogue during those moments (e.g. Redd's introductio…
Do you have any recommendations for science fiction books that explore interesting ideas? There is no Antimemetics Division was really interesting in how some of the scenarios play out. I don't read much but I've been trying to do that more. I really liked the book. Things like the memory consuming entity, async research, etc I enjoyed.
If you want the druggy, high-concept, ersatz-reality version go with Philip K. Dick - namely The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, VALIS.
If you want the intellectual take go with A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller), Oryx and Crake (Atwood) or Solaris (Lem).
If you want the 60s hard-science rooted societal outlook from an ex-Naval Engineer with strong views on gender roles, it's all about Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers etc..
If you want something to share with the young adults in your life, or simply some of the finest writing in the contemporary British YA canon, then Philip Pulman's magnificent homage to 'Paradise Lost' - the 'His Dark Materials trilogy' - cannot come more highly recommended. Usually categorised as 'fantasy', and heavily indebted to Milton and Blake, this represents a master-class in parallel-universe world building with its own take on a Steampunk Oxford and a number of other science fiction tropes.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never read a review and got a true notion of whether the prose is good or not. Is that really why you read reviews? I thought this was a great review because it very concisely described what is an unorthodox book. If you want to see if the prose is any good, read the book. It is a good book by the way.
If you say to just read the book then what's even the point of writing a review? I could say the same about any book which renders the advice meaningless.
To me, the point of a review is to tell me – without spoilers – whether it manages to deliver a compelling ending, presents interesting ideas etc.
If I really just want to know whether I like the prose, I can indeed read the first few pages before buying/lending it.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#226This review is just a plot synopsis. There are no quotes from the book to give me a sense of the quality of the writing. The review feels targeted at somebody who is already bought into the premise, not somebody from the outside who wants to know if "There Is No Antimemetics Division" is a good book or not. In that sense, it totally fails as a book review.
I have never read a review and got a true notion of whether the prose is good or not. Is that really why you read reviews? I thought this was a great review because it very concisely described what is an unorthodox book. If you want to see if the prose is any good, read the book. It is a good book by the way.
I liked it! Qntm's prose is what hooked me.
If you'd like a representative sample, check out the previous version which remains available on the SCP wiki: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub
As part of qntm's book deal, the prose in the book was gently revised to change names etc. Some chapters were reordered for improved flow.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you say to just read the book then what's even the point of writing a review? I could say the same about any book which renders the advice meaningless.
To me, the point of a review is to tell me – without spoilers – whether it manages to deliver a compelling ending, presents interesting ideas etc. If I really just want to know whether I like the prose, I can indeed read the first few pages before buying/lending it.
Yes that would be a good review but the linked article seems to still only be a plot summary.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read the book and at no time did I think "Christianity". It seems like motivated reasoning on your part. At no time did the book ever preach, or was even moralistic.
I'm referring to the ending of the published version, which is quite different than v1, which ends abburptly, in particular the sections before and after: > “She steps back from him. She flexes what could be wings.” > “In ideatic space everything is possible and everything is real and every metaphor is apt. She sees a galaxy of shining points: people, all the people who have ever existed, packed almost densely enough…
You are presupposing that in this fictional universe, Christianity itself is not contained in and described by this memetic pattern.
And why would you expect a memetic victory condition not to have an element of cliche?
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#229I have been thinking a lot about a notion of self-paradoxical knowledge, meaning knowledge that actively makes your reasoning worse. For example, knowledge of extremely rare diseases causes the mind to over-evaluate their importance by many orders of magnitude (there are many variants of this effect). Or trying to explain some concepts of the object/subject construction tend to use a language that is grounded on the…
> I have been thinking a lot about a notion of self-paradoxical knowledge, meaning knowledge that actively makes your reasoning worse.
There could be a hypothetical class of ideas that just knowing about them is actively harmful. For a fictional example, imagine learning how to detect a hostile alien race that has been living with us on earth all this time. Or if one day we invent a thought experiment that induces psychosis to anyone that tries to unravel it.
I think the keyword for these type of ideas is infohazard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_hazard - the See Also section has a few interesting examples.
Re: Book review: There Is No Antimemetics Division
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
Annihilation By Jeff VanderMeer Diaspora by Greg Egan Anathem by Neal Stephenson (this one is a bit like doing homework but worth it imo) If you vibe with short stories Exhalation by Ted Chiang Crystal Nights by Greg Egan isn't bad either
I love all these. I'd add Blightsight by Peter Watts to the list. It has the creepy, psychological bent of Annihilation combined with the hard science elements common to qntm's, Neal Stephenson's and Greg Egan's books.
Blindsight was great. I had such high hopes for their follow up novel Echopraxia, but sadly it felt rushed and under-edited, but the ideas were spectacular.