58 pages • 1 hour read
Hervé Le Tellier, Transl. Adriana HunterThe Anomaly
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 30-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Song of Oblivion”
Part 3, Chapter 30 Summary: “Portrait of Victor Miesel as a Revenant”
On June 29, Victor Miesel visits the cliffs where the ashes of his counterpart were scattered. His editor, Clémence Balmer, gave a heartfelt speech at the time in Victor March’s memory, and now she—along with a policeman and appointed psychologist—watches Victor June with concern. Victor June, however, is not suicidal at all. He read The Anomaly that morning and “couldn’t find himself in it” (319). He doesn’t understand its success.
At lunch, Clémence and Victor June reflect on how weird it is that he saw her only “last week” (317), and yet she has been grieving him for two months. They discuss whether and when to announce that he is alive, and Victor learns that his distant friends and his ex-girlfriend Ilena have been lying about their connection to him since Victor March’s death. Because his counterpart died, Victor June no longer has access to his accounts or his home, but he does have the stuff Victor March had on him when he died, including the red Lego brick; now he has two.
On June 30, Clémence puts together a press conference for Victor’s return and asks Victor not to clown around in front of the cameras. Journalists ask Victor a series of questions, and Victor responds to each with wry quips. He explains that he is not the person who wrote The Anomaly, doesn’t know (or seem to care) if they are in a simulation, and has no relationship with Ilena Leskov. Then a woman in the back row named Anne Vasseur asks him whether he is writing a new book, and Victor recognizes her as the woman from the translation conference that he had been looking for long ago.
Part 3, Chapter 31 Summary: “The Late Show”
Adriana Becker, the young actress on Air France 006 who was auditioning for Romeo and Juliet, is a guest on the June 29 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert interviews Adriana March, who got the role of Juliet for a community theater production months ago. Midway through the interview, Colbert invites Adriana June to the stage, and the crowd goes wild. Colbert asks Adriana June about her experience meeting her double, and the two copies of Adriana dramatize it for effect; they want to leverage the guest spot to promote their acting careers. The conversation turns serious as they explain how their family is struggling to adapt. Their father especially is terrified at the existence of a copy of his daughter. Colbert then invites Adriana March’s boyfriend Nolan to the stage, and the two Adrianas play up the drama. Colbert jokes that Nolan kissed the wrong Adriana, which nobody finds funny.
Meanwhile, religious zealots have gathered outside of the Ed Sullivan Theater, protesting the presence of the doubles. One throws a Molotov cocktail, and the protest turns into a riot. Colbert mentions the protest outside and asks Adriana June what she thinks about the negative societal response to her and the other passengers. Adriana June gives a carefully prewritten and rehearsed speech designed to humanize them and ask for understanding. During the speech, Adriana June cries and Adriana March comforts her. Then the two girls sing a duet of “The Girl from Ipanema.”
Part 3, Chapter 32 Summary: “The Voice Inside Jacob Evans”
During the Colbert filming, a new character named Jacob Evans joins the protest outside the theater. Jacob has been brainwashed by a radical element within the Baptist church called the Army of the Seventh Day. Reverend Roberts convinced him that the people on Air France 006 are abominations that blaspheme against God; having already led protests at McGuire Air Force Base, he and the other members of the militant group now protest The Late Show for “parading” these monstrosities before the world (351). After the protest turns into a riot, Jacob wanders the streets in a zealous stupor until he spots Adriana March and Adriana June entering a limousine. He fires into the limousine with a gun, killing both girls.
Part 3, Chapter 33 Summary: “Erasings”
On June 30, the Protocol 42 task force discusses the double murder. A recent poll shows that 44% of Americans think the duplicated plane is a sign of the end of days. Suicide rates increase dramatically, and conspiracy theories proliferate. Some people march in support of the doubles and in memory of both Adrianas. Comedians on morning shows joke about the situation. Now that the facts are out in the open, thousands more scientists work on an explanation. The world “enters a vacuum of meaning” (359). The Pope issues a statement interpreting the mysterious events as a sign of God’s omnipotence.
Jamy Pudlowski argues that all the passengers need to be placed in a witness-protection program, at least in the United States, and the Protocol 42 team works to erase evidence of the flight to protect the passengers’ anonymity. Meanwhile, on a television program in France, Victor Miesel shows the audience both of the red Lego bricks he carries. He claims to have forgotten which is which because he snapped them together. He does not believe in fate and claims that people are looking for meaning in randomness. Another guest on the program, a philosopher named Philomedius, makes the point that it doesn’t matter whether everyone is a simulation or not. Both men argue that nothing is going to change; humans will always avoid engaging with any realities that force them to reexamine their values and way of life. Humans always work to reduce “cognitive dissonance” (363). Victor suggests that “hope” is an evil because it lets humans deny realities they dislike, and Philomedius quotes Nietzsche: “Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions” (365). In the end, Philomedius argues that if it is a test, then it is a test for them as a species, not individuals.
Anne Vasseur was saddened by the news of Victor March’s suicide. She had noticed him at the translation conference and liked him, but she left the conference early because she was in a relationship at the time and did not want to be tempted into infidelity. When Victor June arrived, Anne took it as a sign, and they are now in a relationship. It feels like destiny.
Part 3, Chapter 34 Summary: “Letters—Three, Emails—Two, Songs—One, Absolute Zero”
On July 10, Joanna June writes letters to Aby and Joanna Wasserman. Inspired by a line in Miesel’s The Anomaly--“We must kill the past to ensure it is still possible” (366)—she has decided to break from her past life. She was feeling empty and jealous of her double’s pregnancy and wanted to get pregnant, too. She’d even been having fantasies of her double dying. So she decided to leave them, change her last name, and take a job with the FBI. It was difficult to leave the man she loves; she had to convince herself that she didn’t love him, just long enough to mail the letters.
On July 1, André March writes an email to André June, attaching all the desperate emails he once sent Lucie March, in case André June wants to learn from his mistakes. André June then writes an email to Lucie June acknowledging his mistakes, noting that the March versions of them broke up and that he intends to change so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.
SlimMen releases a new song, titled “Ghost Song,” about Slimboy’s lover, Tom, who was killed for being gay.
Also on July 1, Jamy Pudlowski shows Sophia June’s mother (April June) the recording of her daughter talking to her double about the “secret.” April now knows that her husband was abusing their daughter. Jamy explains that Clark will be tried and almost certainly get 10 to 25 years in prison. She offers April June a chance to change her name and settle down with a pension as if Clark had been killed in action. April is too in shock to respond.
Part 3, Chapter 35 Summary: “The Last Word”
On October 21, 2021, a task force in the Pentagon—including the president, via video call—makes a secret decision. They order a fighter-jet pilot to destroy yet another Air France 006, which has just emerged from the same March 10 storm. Had the plane been allowed to land, it would have brought into the world a third set of all the same passengers.
Meanwhile, Victor and Anne live happily together in Paris. Victor has just finished a new novel, inspired by Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, about the events of Air France 006. He decides to focus on eleven characters, opening the novel with a character who remains a mystery to the rest, in a hard-boiled style. Anne accuses him of “playing games” (385). He cannot title it The Anomaly because that is already taken.
At the same moment, David Markle dies a second time. A SlimMen concert finishes in Lagos with Elton John as a surprise guest; despite the homophobic climate in Nigeria, they all sing the new song about Tom. Joanna March’s baby is almost due when Joanna June meets someone new in the FBI. Sophia June and her family have relocated to Ohio, while Sophia March’s family has moved to Kentucky; they agree never to contact each other. Blake is never found by the FBI. André March has found happiness with a new woman and rekindled a friendship with Lucie March; André and Lucie June are expecting a child, and Louis is doing “amazingly well” (388). Adrian and Meredith are together happily, and Adrian is still being mistaken for American actors, even in Europe. Protocol 42 is shut down, and nobody outside of China knows what happened with the passengers of the Chinese duplicated airplane. Jamy Pudlowski is the director of a regional office in charge of protecting the Air France 006 passengers.
As the third Air France 006 is destroyed, Victor experiences a weird but peaceful sensation. Time stretches and expands. A slow vibration passes over the planet, felt by everyone at the exact same moment. The novel then ends with language breaking down into disjointed letters.
Part 3, Chapters 30-35 Analysis
Independent of the themes of The Myth of the Unique Self and Reality and Artifice, Le Tellier includes editorial comments regarding United States politics and social conservatism. He returns again and again to the reactionary nature of the US public, especially the prevalence of religious extremism; after Air France 006 becomes public, a poll shows that around 40% of Americans believe it signals the end times—the same percentage of Americans who identify as evangelical and vote for far-right politicians. In describing Jacob Evans, Le Tellier refers to religion as that which attracts only the most ignorant of people; religion “needs a vast darkness around it to attract its prey” (351). This commentary extends to other traditional American identities; Sophia’s abusive father becomes cruel only after joining and becoming brainwashed by the values of the army. Victor, arguably Le Tellier’s avatar in the novel, says in the TV interview that he only understands one half of the United States.
The most negative portrayal in the novel is that of the US president. Notably, other world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are referred to by their real-world names, while the US president is identified only by title—allowing the novel room to present a parody rather than a faithful representation of an actual person. Stephen Colbert’s Late Show is portrayed as pandering to base emotion, in contrast to the philosophical talk show Victor Miesel guests on in France. On the French TV program, Victor and Philomedius discuss the societal habit of ignoring proven science—climate change, virology, and others—suggesting that humans will always opt for whichever illusion asks the least change from them personally and the least “cognitive dissonance” (363). They refer to the way people will react (or not react) to learning that everything is a simulation, but the conversation is also an obvious parallel to something like climate change. (Le Tellier mentions climate change often throughout The Anomaly, often comparing simulation theory and climate change.) Using the example of The Late Show, which centers its conversation about flight 006 on teen romantic intrigue, Le Tellier portrays American media as anti-intellectual.
That said, opting for ignorance over the simulation theory is not an American quality but a human one. Multiple characters, from Blake’s wife to Louis to Adriana’s brother, have the exact same response to learning about Air France 006: “That’s nuts.” The repeated phrase represents a form of Optimistic Self-Delusion: the human instinct to acknowledge that the reality of their world has been shaken to its core with a harmless gesture before giving themselves permission to go back to living their lives as they were.
Blake, who makes decisions without allowing for any emotion at all, represents one extreme response to the impossible reality of flight 006: He simply refuses to let it impact his life. To ensure that it doesn’t, he goes so far as to murder his double. At the opposite extreme are the many characters who find their basic assumptions about themselves and their world no longer tenable. As people begin to reckon with the implications of living in a simulation, they begin to worry nothing has meaning; every outcome is either predetermined or purely random. What does that mean for the place of humanity in the world? Victor cautions against reading meaning into randomness. He describes believing in destiny as seeing an outcome and building meaning backward. At the same time, Victor and Anne do seem to believe that destiny played a role in their meeting; Anne took Victor June’s arrival as a sign, and they are perfect for each other. For Victor, and thus Le Tellier, the formation of meaning in a world full of randomness is a personal choice. He opts for destiny in Anne’s case. He carries around a red Lego brick in his pocket knowing that it is now completely divorced from the memory of his father, choosing to imbue it with his memory anyway. If there is no truth—only representation—Victor conveniently puts aside his scientific skepticism to give his life meaning.
At the end of the novel, the reader learns that Victor has written a new novel, and this new novel seems to be the exact book that the reader is reading, The Anomaly, under a different, unstated title. Victor wants to name it after Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, in which each chapter restarts a different generated novel while the source of the novel generator (whether person or computer) is being investigated. Le Tellier is playing a similar metafictional “game” (385). At the end of The Anomaly, a novel that keeps restarting in different genres, it is revealed that a simulated character is responsible for building that simulation. On the last page, even language begins breaking down, as the novel is revealed to be nothing more than something built of words and letters, a representation essentially made from what is, like a computer simulation, lines of code.
