Best introduction to emacs both use and hacking it wise?

I don't see the "big picture", meaning what really happens when Emacs starts, what are the main components of Emacs and how these components communicate with each other, which I think should be the first step needed to customize a software.

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_hand_pain_celebrity.html
http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_pinky.html
http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/06/01/get-rid-of-the-emacs-pinky/
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyNotUseEmacs
http://games.greggman.com/game/emacs_causes_rsi_/
http://ask.metafilter.com/85389/Help-save-my-wrists-from-RSI

Don't even bother mentioning the Caps Lock-Ctrl swap, the commands are still C-x C-f C-asf C-M-anus (read: a pain in the ass, and a literal pain in the wrist).