January 2024: antimemetic patrick

i am off my meds

My 2025 began with a vampire man! Here is the review I made then;

January 7th - Nosferatu

Female sexuality, the cause of, and solution to, all of lifes problems.

or;

What if goth girls in your area were just too horny?

Strange tale, I had the worst possible day after a bad week.

Wait, I have to explain how terrible Birkenhead is at night over the post new year period

train-to-bus-link goes past the cinema

So i think - I will just pop in see Nosferatu on my way home

calculate the end of my shift so i hit the right time

time changed

central birkenhead totally cold, black, frozen, sliced into bits by empty roadworks

busses home are few

so I go home

next time - I calculate the shifts again

arrive right on time

time has changed again

birkenhead still worst place ever

third time I have the worst day at work ever

feel utterly terrible all day

get out of train station

Birkenhead again

don't even want to see Nosferatu any more

but going past cinema so pop in

Nosferatu starting nowish

buy huge tub of sadness icecream

watch Nosferatu

have best time ever

totally turns my day around

go home very happy

so my reaction is not what other peoples are

film has very split opinion, understandable

a sumptuous poncey film full of sumptuous poncey people who almost all go mad or die

very extremely arch presentation, Bismarkian highly socially presented characters, images like glyphs or tarot cards, queasy proto-Feudian chubtext COULD SEX BE DEATH? WHO KNOWS?

but for me; lovely

the characters talk like silent movie speech cards sound in my head

declarative, a bit strange

all woven up with the queen victorian (Bismarkian?) social setting

loved it

loves Nossys undead voice, like he literally has to remind himself to breath

loved the doctor guys voice and presentation - I have a completely insane alchemist friend who may be able to help; thats Finchy from The Office, don't listen to him!

love the arch pseudo/neo expressionist camera work

bit like a goth wes anderson, (based mainly on all the centre-line picture-frame shots)

love all the beautiful dreamlike imagery and magic which I assume comes from the other first Nosferatu

love the collapse into unreality whenever Orlok is around - guy basically lives in a half-dream himself so what does the world look like from his perspective? he barely exists in its angles, it must be like a coma dream or extra-dimensional dementia

loved lilly rose depp being sylphlike bpd psychic headcase

poor Aaron Taylor-Johnson; your wife invites her old 'crazy' college girlfriend to stay and your family ends up murdered

loved the textures and patterns of the costumes and sets

especially the chocholate-box world of Aaron T-Js homelife

(where were the servants? presumably they were fine at the end, Orlok woudn't bother eating them

and something no-one else has commented on - the CALLIGRAPHY!

what lovely magical, satanic and normal letters there were in this picture

of course you should sign the satan contract my boy! look how well its laid out!

loved the ending - haven't seen the other versions so don't know if this is from them or not

lilly rose-depp you were just too horny, magic and crazy

it wasn't your fault a vampire turned up but at least you dealt with it

Orlok - the greatest catfisher ever, don't give out your address over the psychic internet girls

or is this when a parasocial titty streamers obsessed fan turns up at their house - I gave you half a million dollars in subs!

truly a moral maze!

also; my favourite vampire death so far!

william defoe is good but you expected that

Snow

It snowed like hell and then the snow froze, for weeks and then I lost my temp job;

So, I got depressed, and spent, I think TWO WEEKS SOLID playing the Owlcat CRPG Rogue Trader.

That’s a gigantic review on its own and you can read it here.

Believe Survivors

While I was conquering the Koronus Expanse, Neil Gaiman’s reminder to believe women was getting re-tweeted a lot;

100% hard agree there Neil.

January 17th - Pig

I was very pleased and surprised by this film. Seems like it is going to become a slightly absurd Nicholas Cage revenge story about a woodsman trying to get his pig back, vs the decadent Oakland restaurant scene, evolves quietly into something very different.

I'm really impressed with both the care, depth, and economy of the screenplay. This film is an hour and a half long! 90 minutes! and yet manages its drama, characters and developments with such grace that by the end not one part has been wasted yet nothing went as expected

A strange film about grief and meaning. I can't actually talk much about what happens in it without ruining it but its really good. Its very rare to have a story that grows as much as this one. Might be one of Cages best films. Alex Wolff is also really good and David Knell steals his single scene.

January 20th - Shackle

I subscribe to the Animation Obsessive Substack, which I would recommend. Though it I discovered this excellent short film which makes complex use of shifting natural light in stop-motion animation;

It is VERY GOOD and I would recommend you watch it RIGHT NOW. (10 minutes long).

January 21st - The Wood Engravings of Gertrude Hermes

A curious synchronicity; I discovered Agnes Miller-Parker through her incredible illustrations for the Farie Queene. From her book I read she was friend with and influenced by Gertrude Hermes. Later I discovered Naomi Mitcheson through the genetics work of JBS Haldane, her brother. Here I discover that Hermes was friends with Mitcheson and Miller-Parker. The artistic ferment of 1930's certainly created a web of closely interlinked relationships.

I wish I could talk more intelligently about art but I will have to quote Simon Brett from one of the introductions;

"The Houseleek rises in silhouette from a crumple of foliage, haloed by a lightening radiance of silvery, zigzag planes. Solomon's Seal, all repeats and repeats, is like a bending lady, with calligraphic ripples that fall like chiffon sleeves. Garlic is sharp, bold and contrasty. Thorn Apple looms dark and prickly against rich, suggestive tones beneath. Clematis is designed as an abrupt, angular swipe ; a light leaf and a dark lea counterpoint each other ; light and dark divide along the stem. The severed stalks of Cyclamen seem to emerge from a boiling swirl. Henbane is all curlicues and curvetets, opulent but coquettish. The silhouetted flowers of Hellebore are dominated by the latticed hatching behind them, while its lower leaves hang handlike in pale silhouettes against dark."

Captivating images. I think I liked the earlier ones more than Brett but we agree that she peaked in the middle.

Follower Loss!

At about the same time I experience a follower loss when I re-tweet this excellent article by Dorothy Thompson in Harpers Magazine in 1941

https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/

I then hugely piss off the other half of my audience by saying I think Elon probably wasn’t being Nazi (70/30%) this time.. (probably).

Still, this is a really great article. An in-media res description of a real Dinner Party by Dorothy Thompson as she gazes over the guests and tries to psychoanalyse each one.

The Temptation of St Anthony by Flaubert

he got tempted a lot

(I was really looking forward to reading this after Sallambo, but, TLDR: it was ok.)

"A white elephant, caparisoned with a golden net, trots forward, shaking the tuft of ostrich plumes attached to his head-band.

Upon his back, perched on cushions of blue wool, with legs crossed, her eyes half closed, her comely head sleepily nodding, is a woman so splendidly clad that she radiates light about her. The crowd falls prostrate, the elephant bends his knees; and

The Queen of Sheba

letting herself glide down from his shoulder upon the carpets spread to receive her, approaches Saint Anthony.

Her robe of gold brocade, regularly divided by furbelows of pearls, of jet, and of sapphires, sheaths her figure closely with its tight-fitting bodice, set off by coloured designs representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. She wears very high patterns - one of which is black and sprinkled with silver stars, with a moon crescent; the other, which is white, is sprinkled with a spray of gold, with a golden sun in the middle.

Her wide sleeves decorated with emeralds and bird-plumes, leave exposed her little round bare arms, clasped at the wrist by ebony bracelets; and her hands, loaded with precious rings, are terminated b nails so sharply pointed that the ends of her fingers seem almost like needles.

A chain of dead gold, passing under her chin, is caught up on either side of her face, an spirally coiled about her blue-powdered coiffure, whence redescending, it grazes her shoulders and is attached upon her bosom to a diamond scorpion, which protrudes a jewelled tongue between her breasts. Two immense blonde pearls depend heavily from her ears. The borders of her eyelids are painted black. There is a natural brown spot upon her left cheek; she opens her mouth in breathing, as if her corset inconvenienced her.

She shakes as she approaches, a green parasol with an ivory handle, and silver-gilt bell attached to its rim; twelve little wooly-haired negro-boys support the long train of her robe, whereof an ape holds the extremity, which t raises up from time to time.

She exclaims;"

...........

'Temptations' is written in a language of scenes and images which perfigure animation or surrealist cinema. The blending of scene and image from something like 'The Red Shoes' also reminds me of this.

Baby Flaubert saw a puppet play. In the popular version, St Anthony has a talking pig which DOESN'T show up here. (robbed!) Flaubert had such a strong reaction that he made his own puppet play, then wrote and re-wrote this piece throughout the whole of his life, writing and re-creating it again before other major works. It means something deep to him, but doesn't to me. Sadly perhaps.

Its a modernist text with lots of images and ideas and no answers, so a lot to 'interpret'. I was forced to read an introduction by Foucault. Unless you are Christian, catholic and very well-read, I feel like you are missing the point. I am irreligious so Satans visions seem like either Wikipedia articles, or cringe. Yes the Church fathers sure had a lot of batty ideas, yes the martyrs were likely flawed and odd people, yes there are lot of other religious and the Buddha does seem to have gone though something quite similar. Space sure is big. "Turn then, and belive in me!" Well if Satan is knowledge and reason, which he seems to largely be towards the end of this play, I pretty do already believe in him. For me this is less the tempatation of St Anthony and more just Lucifers Power-Point presentation.

A procession of startling and remarkable images, and wonderful prose, even in translation, it is not a good or interesting story, or meant to be one. Vivid dreams of ancient times, but mainly if you really like Flaubert, and mainly if you really *are* Flaubert.

...........

"One who possesses so vast an accumulation of wealth is no longer like other men. While handling his riches he knows that he controls the total result of innumerable human efforts - as it were the life of nations drained by him and stored up, which he can pour forth at will."

January 22nd - Cygor Complete

An off-brand version from Mierce Miniatures. This guy was mainly-done a while ago but he is finally based and complete!

January 23rd - Elemental Council by Noah van Nguyen

A pretty great (audio)book about the Tau. Emma Gregory does a typically excellent job with the narration. She really seems to have enjoyed the Kroot voice. Let her do a Kroot book please GW.

Is this another somewhat complex book about colonialism in a world where existential supernatural evil actually exists? (After Godeaters Son?) well yes, but the existential supernatural evil isn't in this, just humanity, who are… well actually existentially evil from the Tau perspective possibly.

Humanity makes a great villain in the 40k universe but is rarely used for this to the best possible effect because, even when seen from other eyes, most other options are worse. The recent Necron book had a nice vision of humanity as a horde of crazed fanatics - but the Ncrons were still pretty nutty. Tau are much better for this. The imperium really comes across as utterly maliciously and vividly evil in a way it rarely does in other stories, (and as ancient and inexplicable, which is interesting). Artimax, a Raptor Marine, one of the most sane and reasonable of humanities defenders, being an utter utter bastard consumed with a textured hate for all things nonhuman and a religious devotion to the Imperium, is a lovely vision of how even apparently-sane marines would come across to anyone else.

The moral challenge of humanity for the Tau makes up the core axis of the book and is the most interesting aspect, (though its somewhat ruined, or de-powered, by the end, spoilers below).

Humanity exist in the Tau's cognitive shadow, in that particular blend of like and unalike that makes someone exceptionally difficult to deal with. There are too many humans. Even the Tau don't really understand just how many there are. A strange threat possessed by Man is that we actually might like the Tau'va too much. This is a message of (relative) hope, sanity and reason that humanity has not heard for a long time, many would probably actually go for it, and if the Tau can provide military support, perhaps even more. But there are so many humans, the galaxy throngs with them, the human imperium is massive, many many many more humans than Tau, even more than Tau-plus-auxillia. So what happens when the majority of believers in the Tau'va.. are human? They have no magical respect for Ethereals and their culture, passions, family loyalties, even their psychic potential, make them inherently different to the Tau. They would change the Tau'va, the governing ethos of the Tau Empire.

The closest equivalent I can think of this is maybe the seismic effect Persian thinkers had on Islam and the gradual outnumbering of Arabs in Islam with other peoples. Is this thing an actual Universal Faith, (which is its moral excuse for existing), or simply an ethnic cult, (which is its practical manner of surviving and spreading). If you accept humanity into the Tau'va they may take it from you and ruin it. If you treat humanity as they would treat you, as Tau, as animals and sub-things to be exterminated, or at least controlled, then you make the Tau'va a lie, which kills it anyway. Its an interesting problem to deal with.

SPOILERS AND (MILD) DISSAPOINTMENT)

Someone has been spreading a Tau supremacy cult in a backwater world, hoping to use the brushfire conflict there to crack open the Tau'va like an egg, spreading the challenge of the fundamental incompatibility of Man and breaking the ethos of the Tau empire. Throughout the story its a bit of a whodunnit game trying to work out who did this. My main guesses were;

- the female Ethereal who went missing investigating the cult.

- the chilly male Ethereal running the Elemental Council trying to find her.

- The local Tau fire caste commander

- some clone of one of the main cast (they don't know they've been cloned)

- the inquisition somehow

It turned out to be the inquisition somehow. This ties everything up neatly, or close-to in a plot sense, but closes some of the morally discomforting elements in a way that I find less interesting. (Though its still left open that it might have been the chilly Ethereal).

.....

Are Tau just Asians now? They are more just space Asians, or the Asians from the Karate Kid movies, in this than perhaps they were before, almost a parody of pop culture Asian traits, uniform and obedient to the point of lunacy, meditating on rocks etc etc. Well it works so why worry. Study the blade, they have god and anime on their side.

Cockatrice Complete

Little murder chicken, also from Mierce

January 25th - The Brutalist

Fun but silly film.

The only shovelling Bauhaus architects were involved with was them being shovelled into chairs at major universities and architecture departments all over the place. America loved modernism as soon as it arrived and exalted and rewarded its creators. Its part of the reason it looks like shit now.

Sexposition.

Hooker - "Whats tha matter can't you get hard?"

Nose Man - "Aye am sorreh but mah impotence ys an metaphor."

Hooker - "Metaphor for what?"

Nose Man - "For... impotence."

Later on rape is also used as a metaphor, for rape, (of the artistic kind), apart from the suggested-only rape which was just a normal one and not a metaphor.

If these people were more conventionally attractive and more prosaically lit this would be considered gauche, but they are slightly off-brand and have moody lighting so this is definitely not just some sauce added to keep the energy up.

Bad protagonist.

Nose Man is such an awful human being that they have to run BLACKFRIEND.EXE as soon as possible, and have Nose Man brutalised by EVERYONE to make him look less bad and more sympathetic, because if he wasn't continually attacked by TRAITOR JEWS and the ETERNAL ANGLO, and if he hadn't escaped THE HOLOCAUST, he would seem like just kind of a privileged superior junkie whoremonger twat of a man.

Thankfully we can see that he is indeed DOWN WITH THE BLACKS, (he loves JAZZ!), in fact blackfriend.exe is the only person he is actually nice to in the film, and that Guy Pearce* is RAYSIS (again, in his first scene), so we know who is good and who is bad. This is ok for a melodrama, and not necessarily shameful if you are making a popular film where you use the simplest most direct tools to make the story efficient, but it is also grotesquely crude button pushing when compared to the kind of film this film thinks it is.

(*Producer - "Guy, we are going to need you for a villain role."

Guy Pearce - "Beard or moustache?"

Producer - "Moustache Guy and.."

Guy Pearce -"Oh so he's a pretty bad villain then?"

Producer - "Guy.. we need FULL PENCIL MOUSTACHE.."

Guy Pearce -"That's too much. What are you crazy? That would be... the WORST MAN EVER"

Producer - "Razor thin Guy! RAZOR THIN!")

Laughably Weak and Evil Anglo's

Panto villains really. I think grease was applied to the actors to get them into the scene. Its still fun to watch Guy Pearce being unrelentingly shallow, domineering, possessive, cruel, vain and possibly gay. He opens the film saying “I AM BAD AND RACIST ACTUALLY” and his first story is “I AM THE VILLIAN FROM A GOTHIC NOVEL ACTUALLY”. Suggested incest between the blonde twins. Suggested rape by baby moustache boy. PICK UP THAT COIN BOY.

The Anglos are SO evil the film nearly undercuts itself. If these people are so very obviously extremely bad then why Nose Man work for them? Nose Man has to be totally beaten down and tricked with wife to work for Moustache Baddy. Gets raped and goes back. A metaphor or uncomfortable statement?

Finally after liberating Heroin Collapse, Nose Man Wife goes to bad moustache man and cries out; "YOU ARE AN EVIL RAPIST". Moustache Man is so scared by this he literally stops existing. The mere declamation of THA TROOTH is enough to turn him into a fucking ghost. He just disappears into the Holocaust Tomb forever and is never mentioned again. Its the kind of thing a child or teenage girl would write.

The moral involutions of the film and its relentless confidence in its leads INHERENT RIGHTNESS lead to some Zootopia-type the-racists-were-right(?) situations.

Pennsylvania Townsfolk - "We do not like you SUSPICIOUS JEW, you take our money and play trick on us!"

Nose Man - "No no no, I make good Christian house for god and people. Not terrifying alienating abomination to terrorise landscape like mordor tower no."

Pennsylvania Townfolk - "Well this certainly does look Christian, like the people paying for it who are us. Perhaps we were wrong to suspect foreign jews just because they are heroin-addicted big-nosed wierdoes. Our raysism was a sin."

Nose Man - "Ha ha ha! WAS TRICK! I build soul-eating HOLOCAUST NIGHTMARE TOMB! Is GIGANTIC. Can see everywhere! WILL BE NO ESCAPE!"

Is there a better description of a cube than that of its construction?

Bad Metaphor

Its not about architecture its about the holocaust.

Its not about the holocaust, its about art.

But the architecture is terrible and the art doesn't work.

If its a metaphor for art then this is the creation of the most narcissistic and self absorbed artist ever. They invented the most ridiculously victimised genius Jew possible to represent them, had them RAPED BY CAPITAL and then had them given the VERY SPECIAL PERSON AWARD at the end, and THEN had a character/narrator look straight into the camera and say YES THIS IS ACTUALLY THE POINT OF THE FILM ACTUALLY ALSO IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST AND THE PROTAGONIST WAS A GOOD GUY WHO REALLY LOVED HIS WIFE ACTUALLY.

Pro-Israel?

I don't have strong opinions on this but the Israel subtext (over-text really, like Garth Marenghi, A24 pictures think subtext is for cowards), rings... odd? Film say 'traitor jews change name for evil blond catholic pussy. All blonde anglos very evil rapists literally and metaphorically. Only good jews go to homeland (they have never been there before), life is hard!.

Not That Bad

I am forgetting that I quite enjoyed the film for the first two thirds, though I didn't find it anywhere near as deep as your standard midwit reviewer. Its honestly a well made and well acted melodrama. That part was fine and good. The film also thinks it is very extremely deep, and if you start thinking about it in the terms it requests, but in anything other than the straight lines it requires, it starts to get very strange, silly and flim-flammy very quickly.

January 25th - 4Chan Criticism!

I am being questioned, and perhaps mocked, on the frog site. I would respond but haven’t actually re-read Veins in years. Still, they are probably at least partially wrong! I will think about it later. Perhaps I need to keep in with these guys as they will probably run the U.S. Government in a months time.

January 27th - Furies

Plot is mid. The reason I kept watching is was because there are no bad images. There might be bad writing, (I have no idea if the dialogue is any good but judging by the emblematic characters probably it isn't and I am lucky to have seen it in subtitles), and there is certainly some questionable CGI but I judge the CGI at least a product of limited resources rather than limited attention. The direction, lighting and mis-en-scene are VERY good. Punk-dirty Vietnam lit by bisexual aliens; everything is lanced by trinary tines of blue, pink, green or yellow light. Girls fight through a stylised comic book. Could violent vengeance go wrong somehow? We will see.

Thuận Nguyễn as "Mad Dog" Hai clearly took the Nicholas Cage mail order acting class and is fun to watch. Rima Thanh Vy as Hong really lights up the screen.

Ork Freebootas Complete!

Kind of a mid paint job but at least I managed to get the yellow VERY BRIGHT. These are a combination of recent sculpts by the Goblinmaster Kev Adams, funded through a Kickstarter by Meridian Miniatures, some are from eBay and one is a mini from a forgotten 90s wargame. I feel like the ‘Rogue Trader’ Orks are how Orks seem themselves while the 2000’s grimdark Orks are the same things as seen by humans.

January 29th - There is no Antimemetics Division

Don't read this after you just quit your meds, as I just did! Excellent book, 5 outta 5, would heartily recommend. Brief review via things-this-reminded-me-of;

40K;

Especially the latter parts of the Horus Heresy, Fehervaris stuff and Frenches TIME LOOOOPPS. The recursive aspects of very strong and very controlled blanks also seems to be antiemetic, normal people can't even see Jeneita Krole, though they can intuit the presence of something terrible. Amongst Ol Persons long galactic odyssey his group encounters evidence of possible memetic or similar weaponry, areas 'deleted' from existence and more - which makes sense as a Warhammer Demon is roughly similar to the SCP at the heart of TINAD.

Spiritual consequences - in 40k the threat of particular information hazards helps to create a world of deliberate obscuritianism, ritual, ignorance, paranoia and compulsive punishment of anyone who even *might* think the unthinkable thought, (though few know what that might even be). Part of this is just the general vibe of 40k, but the fact that evil memetic SCP's are just extra-natural and not extra-causal (they do not 'time travel' and are not present in all parts of their timeline at the same time) maybe also has an effect. In warhammer anyone trying to 'fight demons' has to be essentially 'pure' from the start, as their own timeline will be interrupted and altered - they will be attacked and warped at every point from origin till death (though only Fehervari fully exploits or deals with this aspect).

This has a particular reflection in TINAD as many of its characters are forced to delete or alter their or each others memory in order to protect themselves from the dangerous memetic agent they are investigating- essentially they must make themselves investigate 'in ignorance' and, when doing this, they must 'trust both ways' - placing a kind of bet on the sort of person they are, the mind-wiped version they will become, hoping this person they will create of themselves will do the 'right thing', and will even know what to do. Conversely this newly created mind-altered persona, (who usually doesn't know, but can infer, that they have been mind-altered), must also use inference in order to work out what they are meant to be doing, and must 'trust' their former self, the person who mutilated themselves to create this new version.

It's a curious kind of black box thinking where the character finds themself in a complex dark situation with little understanding and has to work out that they put themselves in this situation deliberately, and decide 'well I know my own core values and beliefs and 'who I am' regardless of what has been deleted or changed, and so I think this former 'I' wants me to do such and such in such and such a way’.

The question of a ‘core self’ or a core unalterable morality, worldview and way of being, of a purity of intent and action, also reminds me of Gene Wolf’s ‘Soldier in the Mist’ books in which a soldier of the ancient world has their long term memory damaged and can rely only on what context they can recover each day and on their own constantly-reinterpreted ‘core values’, making them, in a way, a more-pure representative of those values than any normal person could be.

Though in TINAD (spoilers) they do ultimately have 'Saints' and make an 'Angel' from the power of love, which is pretty religious really.

PAT CADIGANS FOOLS;

Pat Cadigan wrote a whole book about this! in Fools her characters can separate and mutilate their own minds, drinking in other peoples memories and creating sub-selves who think they are the 'main persona' and, if they are strong enough, may become so. Though Cadigans characters are more about the complex conflicts between a soul and the fragments it builds in order to deal with things it, itself, cannot.

LOVECRAFT;

Bring out the Big Squids! Isn't this all just Hipster Lovecraft? In fact isn't all of SCP just hipster Lovecraft? Or Wiki-based Delta Green? Well not really, it does have a huge amount of new ideas, but there are certainly deeply shared themes, moods and especially costumes and props.

TINAD becomes a lot more Lovecraftian the more it actually 'shows the monster'. Like a lot of stories like this it really shines when the uncanny is viewed through the subdued microdama of bureaucratic and office politics, the further it gets from that the more it becomes like other things which are like this, though it remains good right to the end. It is hard to tell a story about reality breaking because the only tools you have to communicate with are those from reality - stories like this work best through inference and at the start and middle, the horror of reality violations and the gap in knowledge between the reader and the protagonist can be exploited. By the end, yeah its basically spider monster. Well it had to be something.

There is, in TINAD, a mild Paradox, familiar from Lovecraft, between the Other and the Hateful. SCP-3125 is not only an absolute 'Other', but it is hateful. It actively loathes and tortures humanity and human civilisation into something deliberately noxious, painful and perverse. It is a demon or devil in all but name. Yet it is also 'Other'; something fundamentally 'outside' humanity where some of the terror comes from its sheer indifferent alienness.

A true 'Other' is not really a villain and doesn't make a good character for a story. What is totally alien and indifferent is also totally neutral. The fears and deep psyche complexes work together very well in stories and imaginative worlds, but if we are to be very pointed about it, they are not really the same thing. The terror of a Tsunami, or even a cosmic wave that kills all life, is very different from the terror of a super soul-rapist that actively dislikes you. (In Lovecraft Chthulu themselves is more of a total 'Other' and more humancentric creatures like Nyralthotep are more 'Villains'; interested in ruing things for humans.)

This is not really a deep criticism but more a point of interest.

DR WHO

Mainline Dr Who has played with this idea probably more times than I am aware of. The most recent that I do actually remember was 'The Silence' a parasitic species living amongst humans who could only be remembered when they were in full view. As soon as they are no longer in sight any memory or record of them fades, so those dealing with them are basically two characters; the ignorant self who wanders in and out of strange situations they can't quite understand, and the self who remembers every horrible event, and is experiencing one right now, and also knows they will forget soon. (This is also Psyducks internal world)

Faction Paradox, (deniable ‘off brand’ Dr Who) is another text very deeply concerned with meta-reality conflict and into which TINAD would fit very neatly. Faction Paradox has a whole aspect of memetic war and even has a villainous faction of disembodied, timeless memetic ex time-lords who cosplay as demonic gods, sustaining their own conceptual existence with impositions of theatrical terroristic demonic cruelty and punishment, literal Fake Meme Terrorists.

The difference between Time and Cognition is a subtle one. In Faction Paradox agents can make and sustain paradoxical bodyforms and various selves by altering their own 'biodata', literally pocket-moulding their own timeline to produce things like superhero or monster abilities (I think maybe it doesn't really make sense). in TINAD the power of 'memetics' is so absolute that it can hide mountain-sized super-tombs, entire lost civilisations, super-gigantic elephants and very very large scale huge and continual reality incursions in a way that is maybe a little excessive. (Not a complaint really). Humans ignoring some strange things and editing them out of their cognitive world yet continuing regardless makes some degree of sense, but there must be a point where the sheer number, scale and violence of disjunctions creates a sensed reality which is utterly incoherent.

It sure does make for a good story though! (TINAD also has a last-minute power-of-love ending which is honestly a lot like Dr Who).

THE COLD WAR AND ITS FICTIONS

Entities with incredible powers on one or both sides of a conflict and the ability to manipulate reality at a fundamental level lead to a rather cerebral 'game-like' situation of oblique move and counter-move, with major plans hidden within minor failures, secrets within secrets, messages from former selves etc.

We don't need aliens or meme-plexes to create this murky world or shadow and inference.

I'm reminded of the apocryphal origins of cold war wargaming in the Pentagon where, set with the task of simulating a conventional war in Europe with the (new) existence of Nuclear Weapons, one guy throws a grenade on the map table and says 'there's your war'. The power of atomic weapons made simulations of conventional wars less vital, and created, or sharpened a new/old field of simulation, the diplomatic and cloak and dagger shadow play, along with the wild material theatre of deterrence. A world of "we say this but *might* mean that, and if you do *this* we *can* do that, to which you will respond with this, but we already have a counter in *that*, or do we, this is all deniable of course". Men in rooms with telegrams and telephones playing cards with each other, Robert MacNamara going down to the situation room to give direct command to individual ship captains engaged in blockading Cuba, who are facing some Russian captain, who may well have had their own Premier on the phone, saying well what is the American Captain doing now?

the overwhelming and total nature of the threat, and the uncertain possibility of surveillance and counter-surveillance, transforms a conventional war with explicit moves into a matter of suggestion and possibility.

SHORT BOOK

If TINAD was longer it might be a four-star book, as, over a great length of story, its highly complex and sometimes mutually incoherent ideas and aspects likely wouldn’t stick together that as perfectly. But it isn’t! Its exactly the right size and right length to embody and deal with its own elegant memes. Five outa five memetic product.

January 30th!

I Got a day left! Lets see what happens!

January 31st!

I didn’t do anything useful at all! (I did do my food shopping). I have gone off my low dose of sertaline and I forgot what a fucking anxious weird neurotic I am. Oh well. I will try to keep it up for a month to see if I can level out.