Critical Introduction

The four following “items” are actually separate entries in the SCP Foundation online wiki. The conceit is that the SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation hoards/ imprisons/preserves/steals paranormal objects. Equally indebted to conspiracy theories, found object art, and speculative fiction dealing with cryptozoology or out-of-place artifacts, the wiki combines these interests into a potent creative writing prompt. Each entry follows a prescribed format to maintain the tone and conceit of a large, secret scientific organization: item number, classification, containment procedures, and description that sometimes gives the item's backstory. The two object classes identified in the selected entries are Euclid (items that remain mysterious but do not seem to pose a grave threat) and Keter (items thought to be highly dangerous and which, therefore, demand individualized containment).

Because it is a wiki, the entries are varied. Although items can be whimsical (a vending machine that dispenses random items, for example), our choices are necessarily darker. Aside from their source, they have little in common with each other: an artificially intelligent and bad-tempered home computer, relatively humanoid creatures, a conscious chunk of concrete, a vaguely reptilian creature, and the script of a sentient play that generates a character during the production and drives both actors and audience to commit violent acts. There are, however, a few themes that are common to some of the entries. Some items tap into anxieties about viral communication, science's inability to contain the dangerous, or the definition of life and sentience. All entries rely on the human fear of physical or mental threat.

Reading Questions

As you read through the entries we have collected, try to think about the differences between them and previous monsters you have read about. Is there anything here that is specifically twenty-first-century in nature? Is there anything these creatures seem to share with other monsters that are distant in time or space from contemporary English-speaking countries?

The SCP Foundation is, arguably, an example of creepypasta like Slender Man. The tone and treatment of the subjects in these stories, however, is different. In what ways do they differ—and what might be the reason for those differences?