There Is No Antimemetics Division

Marie Quinn’s husband, Adam Quinn, is a secondary protagonist. Unlike Marie, Adam isn’t directly involved in the Unknown Organization. He works as a concert violinist, touring countries with the New English Symphony Orchestra. When Marie dies in the middle of the novel, Adam must complete her work and free the world from U-3125’s dominion by using the Irreality Amplifier. Though Marie returns in the novel’s final chapters in an abstract form to defeat U-3125, she manages to do so only through Adam, who carries the memories that allow her to manifest in ideatic space.

Adam’s character arc centers on his understanding of Marie’s relationship with her work. Adam never openly resents Marie’s discretion because he understands that the nature of her work requires it. The novel suggests that Marie does share some aspects of her work with Adam, including her symbiotic relationship with U-4987, which they both call “Sunshine.” Adam similarly extends care to Marie when she’s home, functioning as an important ally during her leadership of the Antimemetics Division. However, when Sunshine consumes Marie’s memories of their relationship, Adam appeals to Marie to restore those memories, a choice she ultimately declines. Adam expresses his fear of losing Marie forever when he asks her what she plans to do if she loses the war. This effectively establishes Marie’s personal stakes in the conflict.

The novel revisits Adam in Part 3, revealing that he has survived U-3125’s takeover of the world. His listlessness reflects his sense that something is wrong with the world he inhabits, including his instinctive awareness of Marie’s absence. Though Adam doesn’t recognize Marie upon finding her corpse, he comes to trust in the memories of their relationship once Sunshine shares them with him. This culminates in the moment of vulnerability he experiences while recording a statement on the war-room laptop in the fourth chapter of Part 3, recalling how Marie saved his life the first time they met.

When Adam reunites with Marie at the novel’s end, he acknowledges that her gambit to sacrifice their relationship was necessary to save the world. Marie likewise acknowledges that she was unwilling to let her work affect her personal life. In this case, she couldn’t avoid it because Adam’s intimate knowledge made him the only person who could bring her memory to the amplifier after her death. Adam’s final memory of Marie is her singing, which references a part of her personality outside of her work. This illustrates that Marie was much more than her role as Antimemetics Chief, and that Adam chooses to hold onto this part of her after his memories have been restored.

The novel’s central antagonist is the Unknown designated U-3125. The novel refers to it by several names, including “the escapee,” which Andrew Hilton uses to introduce it in the third chapter of Part 1, and an ideogram pronounced “Va,” which the novel reveals in the early chapters of Part 3. The absence of a definitive identity for U-3125 reflects its nature as a complex abstract concept. Were U-3125 tied to a definitive name and identity, it would signal this Unknown’s capacity to be understood. Instead, U-3125 constantly avoids attempts to be known, becoming hostile as soon as someone grasps its existence.

The novel suggests that U-3125 represents the ideal related to fear and cynicism. In the sixth chapter of Part 3, Quinn confronts U-3125 and observes its capacity to corrupt all ideas into “the worst version of itself” (268), adding, “It takes joy and turns it into vindictive glee; it takes self-reliance and turns it into solipsistic psychosis; it turns love into smothering assault, pride into humiliation, families into traps, safety into paranoia, peace into discontent” (268). The countermeme WILD LIGHT, which Quinn embodies and which represents fearlessness, overcomes U-3125, suggesting that U-3125 gains power by weaponizing people’s worst thoughts before they can discover better ways of thinking about the world around them.

Supporting this characterization of U-3125 is its visualization in Part 3. It appears as a gigantic eye that sits on the horizon, turning the world into a panopticon. Its presence blocks out the sun, creating the illusion that day and night no longer exist. This creates the impression that U-3125 lives in a constant state of paranoia, watching out for people who resist its dominion. When referred to by the name “Va,” U-3125 forces humanity to operate as a hive mind, all sharing the same thought and lending their bodies to the fulfillment of the same purpose. This is the antithesis to the ideals that the Organization represents, as humanity lives without freedom and therefore in a perpetual state of fear.

The minor protagonist Simon Lee leads the action in the second chapter of Part 1. He helps broaden the novel’s scope by introducing the work that other Antimemetics Division staff members do in support of Quinn’s objectives. Lee’s natural curiosity defines him, leading him to master different fields of knowledge. This makes him an attractive target to the Unknown, which uses the name Adrian Gage, since Gage preys on knowledge, systematically erasing Lee’s skills as he closes in on him.

Lee’s confrontation with Gage introduces the idea of instinctive or implicit knowledge, which is central to the resolution of the novel’s conflict. Though Lee is led to believe that he’s a junior researcher on his first day at work, the memory encoded in his reflexes allows him to overcome Gage’s exploitation of his mind. These reflexes enable him to absorb the research compiled by Gage’s past targets and then devise a solution that effectively defeats Gage. In a debriefing session, Quinn affirms Lee by emphasizing the importance of his implicit knowledge, which he has carried with him since his first real day at the Organization.