DEPT
A LIFE PRESERVER FOR FOR THE GIFTED
ELEVEN YEAR OLD "GILFORD GROUND" HAS A PROBLEM, his I.Q. is twice that of the average person, he has a remarkable memory, rich sense of kindness and good taste, and he see's very quickly the society he is growing up in, feeds on the weak, loves violence, forgets its trespasses and history of bloodshed against others, the moment its head hits the pillow every night, and if he points that out, that same society will turn its clubs and tools of torture on him, and starve him, cast him out or worse.
He is also a orphan, he does not yet have control of his life,and the people who do, are very dangerous.
All of which he see's and knows because Gilly Ground is a genius, and his high IQ shows its self as dyslexia, which is normal, as 74 percent of dyslexics have a IQ approaching brilliant.
So when gilly trys to think of a word like cat, his soaring mind shows him more possibilities then the average person. Catatonic, Cat tail, Catalina, Cadillac, all soar up to his minds eye and in sorting through this catalog of options he sometimes stumbles on his words and simple minded folks perceive him as "Stupid" when in fact he is the only hope for "Human kind" ever becoming wise enough to become a "Sane Society"
Because he has enought inner empathy power to admit his faults and not live at the exspense of others.
He learns early in order to survive he must hide his high IQ to survive, so he deliberately miss spells his words to further make insecure minds not jealous of him, something he has learned the hard way can get him harmed or worse.
His story is the story of millions of children who are forced to live in the hostile violent atmospheres of everyday middle class society.
These are the children who invent our vaccines, write timeless screenplays, bring peace to war, or turn from the option of becoming very rich from their abilities and instead help the poor.
These are people you should never confuse with "Geeks or Eggheads" as they often have a great amount of charisma and personal charm, and learn early if they are to survive, must never let us know they see us, our violence, our hypocrisy, our self loathing and desire to hurt anyone who points our "Tower Of Babel" is a murderous beast.
This book has been banned from library’s all over the world, and yet continues to save lives in the hope it gives the gifted and talented around us.
And this book is one heck of a read for anyone.
Gilly Ground is forced to face head on the very sick and often insane successful people who are held high in the eyes of public opinion and commerce.
He takes much refuge in nature, and the people he finds there.
His story is the story of anyone who must really become a "Normal whole and kind Person" in a world that has no interest in that and never has.
The Palms Art Gallery would like to thank the fans of Julia Cunningham and the University of Oregon’s Dept of arts and letters, which holds Ms Cunningham’s papers, for writing the main text of this review.