58 pages • 1-hour read
There Is No Antimemetics Division
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Symbols & Motifs
First Day of Work
As a recurring idea throughout the novel, the “first day of work” symbolizes the value of implicit knowledge. It first appears in the second chapter of Part 1, when Simon Lee engages with Adrian Gage, who makes him believe that it’s only his first day on the job. This puts Lee at a disadvantage since he’s a veteran researcher at the Antimemetics Division, putting all his years of experience to waste. Nonetheless, Lee’s implicit knowledge as a researcher kicks in, allowing him to use the scientific method to develop a strategy for defeating Gage.
When Quinn debriefs Lee after the encounter, she tells him, “But if you want the honest truth, people in this division are as competent on day one as they’ll ever be. Newcomers show up firing on all cylinders, or not at all” (35). This signals that even in the absence of explicit knowledge or memory, naturally ingrained instincts push certain people to find solutions on their own.
Like Lee, Quinn experiences regression to her first day of work when U-3125 attacks UO Wyeleigh in the fourth chapter of Part 2. Scrambling through the collapsing facility, Quinn doubts her ability to develop a countermeme to defeat U-3125. However, she soon reminds herself that because she’s working at the Division, she has developed the natural skill to find a solution. This recognition of her implicit knowledge helps her overcome her doubt and realize that she embodies the Organization’s ideals. Later, in the sixth chapter of Part 3, the text reveals that Ed Hix voluntarily resets his knowledge so that he can restart his progress on the Irreality Amplifier from scratch. The novel refers again to his “first day” on the project, but underscores the advantage that this decision gives him, allowing him to continue working past whatever blocks obstructed his progress.
The Memorial
The memorial that appears in the first chapter of Part 2 is a motif that thematically supports The Human Cost of War, foreshadowing what’s at stake in the antimemetic conflict between the Organization and U-3125. Quinn explains that the memorial belongs to a now-forgotten civilization that existed millennia earlier and was defeated by an idea designed to overpower it. This information horrifies recruit Oli Morgan, who earlier in the chapter referenced the long-term nuclear waste warning messages devised by Sandia National Laboratories: “‘We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture’” (74).
Though awe-inspiring, the memorial illustrates how quickly human civilization can collapse under the weight of the right idea. An important quality of the memorial is that its design evades clear understanding. Neither Quinn nor Morgan can provide a clear answer about the meaning of the rectangles that cover the memorial’s walls. Similarly, they can’t deduce why the memorial is clouded under an antimemetic field. This obscures it from perception and memory and defeats the purpose of its edifice to honor a long-gone civilization. After U-3125 destroys the UO facilities at Wyeleigh and Stanmoor, these facilities similarly represent inscrutable cultures to Adam.
U-4987/Sunshine
The symbiotic Unknown U-4987 (or “Sunshine”), which constantly follows Marie Quinn, is a motif that thematically connects to Knowledge as a Form of Hope. The novel first references this Unknown in the first chapter of Part 1, as Quinn engages its antimemetic capabilities to defeat Levene. Quinn explains that she has developed her relationship with the Unknown to the point that she can weaponize it as an extension of her skills in the field. Quinn indicates that U-4987 likes to eat on “tasty memories,” which requires her to fill her mind with information that she can feed it in place of more important memories. Adam does the same thing later on, carrying books full of trivia to feed Sunshine as they travel to UO Wyeleigh.
The pet name that Quinn and Adam give U-4987, “Sunshine,” speaks less to the true nature of this Unknown than it does to the intimacy of their relationship. When Sunshine saves Adam, it appears as a glint of light, symbolizing the idea that Adam’s memories of his marriage to Quinn saved him from Va. Though the novel cites Sunshine as the reason that Quinn forgets her memories of her marriage to Adam, Sunshine is also the entity that restores Adam’s knowledge of his relationship to Quinn, giving all the memories it consumed back to Adam. These memories compel him to complete the journey to UO Stanmoor and fulfill Quinn’s plan for completing the Irreality Amplifier. By consuming and storing those memories, Sunshine thus creates hope for the future of humankind.
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