Reading Assignment 1

Wallace conveys such a fragmented story that my mind practically begs for some of the pieces to come together. In particular, I'm frustrated by some of the references/acronyms he uses and then comes back to, but never explains. For instance "The Great Concavity" and "The Great Convexity" come up twice, but I have very little of an idea of what they are (Also, ONAN, which may or may not be a joke concerning onanism). On the other hand, he also comes back to a few things in different plot threads (The drug dealer with snakes, the Québecois-separatists) but they never make much sense. This suggests that there is some sort of underlying connection between the different threads, but only begins to whet our appetite for coherence.
It seems to me that the story is being told by different people entirely and not just different points of view between sections. The tone, diction, and even the reliability of the narrator change dramatically as the story progress. One second we have the calm, erudite Hal, the next we are left with anxious and unreliable Erdedy, and in case that was too easy, we also find ourselves with colloquial Clenette.
Some of the situations presented are humorous at first read, but after some thought become very tragic. Specifically, the violent reaction to Hal's calm, composed response is absurd in a sort of slapstick way, but really it seems like the stifling of a perfectly fine intelligent person.
The themes which I feel play the most important role so far are entertainment and addiction. Because so many of the characters do drugs (13/36 of the footnotes are primarily about drugs), the two go roughly hand in hand.