Of all things, what's just happened in Infinite Jest brings the SNES version of Harvest Moon to mind.
It's currently snowing on the morning of 18 November in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, and the way Wallace focuses on this weather is evocative for me of the 16-bit farm/romance simulator. His descriptions of the snowfall and the coldness of the outside world call up the same feelings as that game's background music for the last season of the year. That's what I think the relation comes down to.
But this part of the book's apparent obsession with weather is also odd in and of itself.
Aside from the odd mention of rain or cold or sunshine here and there, I don't recall weather ever being so foregrounded in the book. The weather's just been there. But now it's been given nearly center stage. Hal is still front and center as the last few sections' "I" after all.
Things with Hal are coming to a head, it seems. He contradicts what his wraith of a dad told Gately about his being perpetually silent, claiming that he would speak but his dad wouldn't hear. Though later it's implied that Hal's face is starting to express without his conscious consent.
Along with Gately dreaming about the alleged point of J.O. Incandenza's Infinite Jest (V) (based on nothing other than his knowing Joelle V.D. (who happens to star in the film)), it's pretty clear that this book is bound for a whirlwind wrap-up.
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