Wallace´s outstanding novel has many characters, some of which, most notably Hal, are portrayed as possessing incredible skills, such as eidetic memory in this case. Although being so well predisposed to life and its intricacies, these characters are nonetheless unable to function properly according to society´s norms and expectations —mediocre or even evil, as they are understood by the characters themselves—, perhaps because of their unrealized (or unrealizable potential), making them, in turn, incapable of figuring out their own mental constitution and pushing them, like Hal, to a point of unfathomable madness.
