Cirrus@Austlit

'Awareness of this predicament dawns with a distant memory of being exhibited like a monkey in front of my peers. And the other kids being told I'd stay behind when they moved up a grade, probably til the end of time. It was lie a weird Japanese animation flick where someone puts a curse on the main character, and they're fucked for all time and forever. Years later I learnt the teacher has told my mum that I would never learn to read or write, that I was just dumb; it was as if I had never been anywhere or seen anything; it has the feel of Dostoyevsky's idiot about it.' (Introduction)

The author describes his experience with being called 'stupid' on account of his dyslexia ever since childhood, and the ways he pushed back against this definition.