Twelve-year-old Mila has the gift of extraordinary perception, for seeing what others do not.
And with extraordinary perception, he built up a faculty that read like a directory of distinguished tutors in their fields.
They were explorations of "what happens if you do your very best, but because you don't have an extraordinary perception of the world, and you can't help but be a part of the society you live in, you invest all your talents in something that later you think you shouldn't have".
Here is the direct record of his rapid development from the serious schoolboy to the facetious youth with ambivalent reactions to his perplexed mother, and the maturing man of extraordinary perceptions and sympathies and friendships.
Hans was a prodigy whose extraordinary musical perception became evident at the age of four; Gustav Mahler's teacher, Julius Epstein, called him a genius.
Just as people seem capable of superhuman strength under life-and-death situations, so adrenaline can produce extraordinary feats of perception like mine.
For some, like Golding, it was the implications of the images and their setting; for others, it was the extraordinary sophistication and perception of the paintings themselves.
I remember first reading what seemed a highly erotic scene of Gulliver dangled on the giant bare breasts of ladies in waiting, and then the extraordinary switch of perception, when he saw the giant pockmarks of skin in closeup.
From the very first shot — in a bar, where the action is sparked by an off-camera voice — he revitalizes the ordinary by means of his extraordinary powers of perception and juxtaposition.
People unaccustomed to the contrived and jokey language of the Gen Xers may find his book exasperating at times, but the extraordinary understanding and perception that the shock of life have given him come through clearly, and the book is the best expression of his sense of responsibility.
His main research interest is in whether the timing of medical treatments can affect their efficacy, a theory about which most researchers remain sceptical, but his diligent self-study does tell us something extraordinary about time perception.
