The narrator’s worst fear comes to pass. However, it is remarkable (and troubling) how quickly she becomes desensitized to the idea that novels will no longer exist. After spending much of the book worrying about this eventuality, she already tells R that it’s not worth keeping something that has disappeared, which highlights the enormous, destructive power of disappearances. R’s “violent” opposition to getting rid of the narrator’s books shows that he’s still the same person—a person who cares about stories. But this is contrasted with the narrator’s immediate indifference, which foreshadows the difficulties they might have agreeing on things in the future.