There are a lot of things about Infinite Jest that are easier to understand than most people seem to believe. I’ve never had a problem seeing a plot in it, for example, though a bunch of people don’t see it.
One thing that I’ve never been entirely sure of, though, is just who is narrating this sprawling tale. The book is mostly told in a fairly tight third-person point of view (you’re generally privy to the thoughts of one character at a time), but there are a number of asides that confuse this. In particular, the Don Gately sections include a number of footnotes mentioning that the words used to describe his actions and reactions are not the words that Gately himself would’ve used. The narrative voice is considerably more erudite than Gately would be, with the complex sentences and SAT words that are the hallmark of Wallace’s style.
The obvious conclusion, then, is that it’s being narrated by Hal Incandenza, who speaks in that sort of manner, and has memorized most of the OED. And that seems to make some sense, up until page 325 and footnote 127.
Page 325 is near the beginning of the Eschaton section, and describes the “trigger situation” for the game that is played on November 8, Y.D.A.U., with lots of snarky little asides and extra details. Footnote 127 reads:
A lot of these little toss-ins and embellishments are Inc amusing himself, not Otis’s TRIGSIT, which is 100% all biz.
P.S. Wolf-Spiders Ruleth the Land
“Inc” here is a nickname for Hal Incandenza, so at first this seems to confirm the theory that Hal is the narrator. The phrasing of the footnote, though, and especially the Wolf-Spiders reference, marks this as Michael Pemulis speaking, which makes no sense– if Hal’s telling the story (through means unknown at some time after the main action), why is Pemulis able to add footnotes to it?
So what the hell is going on? Beats me. I suspect that this is Wallace screwing with the reader in order to make some sort of deliberate point about the artificiality of the whole narrative conceit. It would bother me more if not for the fact that I really like the main narrative voice, weird asides and all.