Infinite Jest is a proud member of the Hysterical Realism genre. It's also a novel that prominently features a tennis academy. So, twelve pages about the ins and outs of a tournament and of players' prepping for it shouldn't be a surprise. I guess I was just so close to the plot, that there might be something more delivered.
Nonetheless, given what's known about the book so far, a few guesses can be made. All of these guesses are predicated on the fact that the book's first chapter is, chronologically, its last. In said chapter, Hal is under some sort of duress, or has become unable to speak. Here are my hypotheses.
1) Hal watches the tape that's going around, the one that kills because it's so entertaining. However, he doesn't watch enough of it for it to be fatal, only paralyzing to his vocal chords/tongue. Alternatively, he is given some sort of anti-tape after having watched it, but part of it has been taped over, and that part somehow corresponds to his loss of speech.
2) Hal's loss of speech is the result of his substance use, which, Schacht has recently noted, is quite frequent.
3) Hal's loss of speech is the result of just the one incidence, where he and Pemulis and Axford take their hits of the super powerful chemical Pemulis picked up.
Given the tenor of the book to this point, the first hypothesis seems most likely to me, the others lending themselves to too much of a P.S.A. Since Infinite Jest is supposed to be at least slightly parodic, drug P.S.A.'s don't seem like they'd fit. At least not as actual attempts to move drugs out of youth culture.
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