Adversarial theory ledgers: the evidence weighed for each contested reading.
- Gately's Fate
"Does Don Gately survive the hospital — and is the freezing beach on the last page his death or a memory?"
- The Ending
"What happens in the missing year between the novel's last page and its first — and is the gap the whole point?"
- Who Mailed the Samizdat
"Who mailed the lethal cartridge that starts the crisis — and how do Orin's, Joelle's, and Marathe's stories end?"
- What Happened to Hal
"Does Hal get dosed with DMZ, and by whom — or was there no drug at all?"
- The Buried Head
"Did Hal and Gately really dig up James Incandenza's head — and what, if anything, was inside it?"
- Is the Wraith Real?
"Is the wraith at Don Gately's hospital bed a real ghost, or his fever talking?"
- The Wraith, Stice, and Lyle
"Is the wraith moving Ortho Stice's bed — and what exactly is Lyle, the guru who lives on the weight-room towel dispenser?"
- Joelle's Veil and Face
"What is under Joelle's veil — a face ruined by acid, beauty too extreme to bear, or a gap the book refuses to close?"
- What the Entertainment Contains
"What does the lethal film actually show — a blurred mother apologizing through a wobbling crib's-eye lens, or does the book never let us see it?"
- Why the Entertainment Kills
"Does watching the Entertainment actually kill anyone — and is a counter-cartridge out there?"
- Wayne, Avril, and the A.F.R.
"Is John Wayne a separatist plant inside the academy — and how deep do Avril's Québécois ties really go?"
- James O. Incandenza's Death
"Was James O. Incandenza's microwave death really suicide, why did he do it, and is his ghost secretly telling the whole story?"
- The Novel's Structure
"Is the novel's ring shape deliberate, was it really built as a Sierpinski gasket, and is Hamlet the skeleton underneath?"
- The Book's Composition
"Were 500 pages really cut from Infinite Jest, was it two books stitched together, and was the ending always the ending?"