IVIV20: The more we know, the more we know, 364-365

[Paul Nightingale]

The chapter's opening gives us Day 45 of a narrative that, where dating is
concerned, flirts with realism in order to remain imprecise throughout.
Inferring continuity from the end of the previous chapter, we might conclude
that this final day begins on 354, Doc awakened by the fire bell, to which
notion we return later.

Here, stream-of-consciousness links Doc to others in terms of money owed.
Social ties are defined in economic terms.

Sparky finally makes an appearance, following the exits of Bigfoot and
Sauncho, and predicts the future: "... someday everybody's gonna wake up to
find they're under surveillance they can't escape" (365). Sporting ritual
(this year's playoffs; repetition and cyclical time) is replaced by
technological progress ("twice as many computer screens as Doc remembered
..." etc, 364) and something we might call 'the future', "moving so fast,
like the more we know, the more we know ..." etc (365). We have left Bigfoot
and Sauncho pursuing their futures, Doc left behind by their interest in--or
obsession with--truth; and follow Doc into his future.

Coming in, Doc sees the changes. Cf his take on Shasta at the outset: "...
he'd seen her looking around at everything that hadn't changed ..." etc (4).

By implication the Docs of this world, PIs and skip-tracers as
petit-bourgeois businessmen, will be out of a job, "obsolete" (365).