The World of Infinite Jest

From sequart.org

...or, there are so many things I don't understand.  For starters, what is the 'Year of Glad?'  In the imagined future of Infinite Jest, the years have lost their numeric names and are instead called by their corporate sponsors.  There is general agreement that the sequence goes like this:

1. Year of the Whopper
2. Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
3. Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar
4. Year of the Perdue Wonderchicken
5. Year of the Whisper-Quiet Maytag Dishmaster
6. Year of the Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade for Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems for Home, Office or Mobile [sic]
7. Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
8. Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (Y.D.A.U.)
9. Year of Glad

There is disagreement, however, on what those years correspond to in real time.  It's worth noting that I read a blog that reported that in an interview Wallace said that the year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar referred to Dove soap rather than chocolate.  

In any case, most of the novel's chapters take place in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (Y.D.A.U.)

Is that helpful?  Read more at Tim Ware's David Foster Wallace wiki.