Billie tests at the level of genius and reads a thick dictionary for pleasure, and yet she is naïve about some things— for example, she thinks that the Garden of Eden tourist venue is the actual location where Adam and Eve once walked. How do you reconcile these two?
It made me think of the study of multiple intelligences. Billie could test as a genius but still not be intelligent in some ways. I remember, when I was young, that my father talked about the value of what he called “street smarts”. In his view, testing as a genius did not mean that person will always cope with the world successfully.
Billie tends to process information literally rather than socially or contextually.
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I once heard that the human mind is the most complex known organism in the universe. I tend to believe this yet today. Now some minds seem more complex than others; however, a brilliant mind doesn’t mean that person knows everything. Billie seemed to think literally most times, yet she did wonder about that inner voice. Just who was that?
I once worked with a brilliant elementary age boy in the early 1970s. Paul’s parents had recently installed fire retardant carpet in their living room. He wondered. Hmm. He tested this by setting small fires in various places of the new carpet. Intelligent? Yes. Common sense? Nah
I think that is typical of some people who are considered a genius.They are book smart but have no common sense.
I believe Billie was definitely on the spectrum so her intelligence level was higher than her social level. Her brain just worked differently than it does for many of us. I don’t think that’s unusual for neurodivergent people–being book smart just came easier to her. Considering the time period and the way her family treated her, I’m surprised she was able to cope with the social aspects of life as well as she did.
I agree with the others who have said that Billie interprets what she hears literally, so her responses are often awkward. And she knows that, but cannot change herself. It’s sad that she has to worry about that. It also keeps her from being spontaneous.
I agree with you Nan about the human mind. You cannot take a blood test or an x-ray of the mind
After finishing the book The American Revolution through the eyes of artists (which was a fantastic read) many of the artists and even some of our founding fathers had quirks, and research has acknowledged some had personality disorders.
My daughter was extremely intelligent and artistic and was able to get scholarships to college but she had ZERO common sense. Unlike Billie my daughter, because was fortunate to have a more stable childhood, had the confidence in herself that Billie definitely lacked.
I have to add that our family went to the Garden of Eden in 1990. Even as an adult at 39 the place is extremely eccentric and uncomfortable with the amount of cement statues representing characters from the Bible.
The house is full of carved modeling and the inside doors have symbolic meaning.
I remember having a sense of relief when I left.
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Billie was a child when she visited the Garden of Eden, and she often had trouble making sense of her environment. I wish she had some teachers that took an interest in her and helped her stay engaged by providing interesting, challenging learning opportunities. The public library was a haven for her.
We all know people who are book smart, but lack common sense - this is how I felt about Billie. And her mother didn’t address this with her at all - she preferred to forget the fact that she was a mother and drink instead. I found myself wondering how Billie’s life could have been better if her mother had made some attempt to walk her through some of the challenges instead of bullying her like so many others did.
Just because someone is very intelligent doesn’t mean that their picture of the world is more accurate than anyone else’s. Billie still has the culture and values that she grew up into. I remember once a student asking an “enlightened Buddhist teacher” to tell the student what his address and phone number was. The teached looked at quizzically. The student said, “If you’re really enlightened, I thought you had a direct experience of reality.” The teacher responded and said, “I think we may have a different idea about the nature of perceiving the world directly.” Similarly, what we think Billie’s high I Q means might not be accurate. I’ve gone to lectures by very smart people who were not very skilled in communicating their ideas to others. I left the lecture totally confused.
Some people as geniuses do not relate to the real world.
Besides probably being on the spectrum, Billie was also very limited in experiences and knowledge of the outside world due to her socioeconomic status. Billie was eight when her family visited the Garden of Eden and I got the impression that before they visited she thought it was the real Garden of Eden, but didn’t have that belief after visiting. I also didn’t get the impression that she was brought up going to church or Sunday School, except when she visited Wiley, so it isn’t a stretch for me to understand how she could believe before she visited that the Lucas attraction was the actual location of the Garden of Eden.
Sometimes people just don’t have common sense and Billie was a literal thinker. She had no one to discuss things with as her mother certainly didn’t talk. The Garden of Eden was something Billie knew only from religion so not surprising she didn’t know the difference.