Chapters 16-20 Summary

In Chapter 16, the author quotes from Trout's unfinished memoire, My Ten Years on Automatic Pilot, regarding the timequake. Everybody in the world is brought back ten years due to the universe stopping its expansion, and then everybody had to repeat exactly what had already happened during those ten years. The implication is that free will is suspended during the repeat ten years. Cars would drive themselves, and planes would fly safely or unsafely. People simply could do nothing to change what had already happened. In Chapter 17, the author ties Zolant Pepper to Trout. While a high school sophomore, Zolant had copied one of Trout's published short stories and handed it in as his own work. The plagiarism was immediately detected and Zolant punished. When Prince shows the discarded manuscript to Zolant, he becomes excited that Trout is writing again. In Chapter...