Morgan Leigh Davies

@mldavies

Victorian lady invalid, lying in bed surrounded by books. Long covid, ME, other ailments. Bylines in The Sewanee Review, The Sick Times, Jezebel, etc; cohost of Overinvested pod in absentia; working on a novel. she/her

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Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· 15d

This just isn't taking what Nolan is doing seriously. As someone else on here said (sorry, I've lost the post), Nolan has thought about The Odyssey longer and harder than almost anyone EXCEPT Wilson. He didn't just throw shit at the wall.

Nolan’s Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem great. It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends and neighbours. It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· 22d

you can’t make this shit up

ESPN World Cup liveblog screenshot

Tom Rostance
I think this is BTS now. I'm not sure what audience this is for, but good luck to them. It's going to be a long halftime; let's hope Lionel Messi and his fellow veterans are icing up.
FC
ESPN FC
@ESPNFC • Follow
BTS at the World Cup halftime show
X
MICHI

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· 29d

Yesteryear! What a bad book! Plot holes, psychological nonsense, a terrible twist. I wrote about it all: buttondown.com/mldavies/arc...

Basically, this book was written by a highly educated secular woman for highly educated secular women, sneering at evangelical Christian women. I think this is cheap. Right-wing Christian women are not a category of people I sit around feeling sorry for most of the time; the problem is that Burke doesn’t seriously try to interrogate how women in this deeply patriarchal culture are so often both victims and perpetrators of reactionary politics. Instead, Natalie is a weird facsimile: a woman who thinks and talks a lot like a highly educated liberal woman, but who nominally holds conservative beliefs. She makes no sense, but given how well Yesteryear has sold, she clearly makes female liberal readers feel a sense of security in their own identities and (facile) ideas about women on the right. The very idea of sending a tradwife back in time to life in the olden days for real is punitive. It’s a compelling premise, but a mean one. (Also, the sections that take place in the past are boring, which neutralize the promise of the premise. Sorry.)

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Jun 4

Oh also there’s this. Long COVID doesn’t exist apparently! I would definitely trust this man to write about this issue in good faith. Deeply embarrassing and credibility damaging for @wired.com to have run this piece.

Alan Levinovitz X post:

Zeynep — this is not like TB (or cancer, or HIV, or any of the other analogized conditions), because there is no "long Covid" in the first place. There's an extremely vague definition that could apply to a range of conditions, from post-ICU syndrome to basically every PAIS that's out there. Much of the article is dedicated to discussing the definitional problems, as well as the problems that creates for studying "the" condition in the first place. The piece isn't saying that "mind-body" therapies work, or don't work, for long Covid, or any PAIS. It's saying that right now there IS no single entity we can call "long Covid," there's just vague definitions of a family of syndromes and symptoms, which result in everything from extremely moderate to very severe illness.
Equally important, and also the point of the article: A subset of very, very ill people — and a larger subset of mild/moderate — attribute their recovery to mind-body interventions.
Was it spontaneous remission? Was it
"placebo"? Was it...something else? It would be great to know! But that patient group, specifically, has been of zero interest to researchers, and are actively ostracized by the advocacy world

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Jun 4

The idea that children will simply faint away & die when confronted with the concept of history… is both offensive and fails to take into account that Little Women is like. The most popular kid’s book in history. A huge part of the appeal of reading as a kid is trying to understand the adult world.

Why do publishers modernize books?
A dated reference can break the spell a book casts on readers, said Elana Roth Parker, an agent specializing in children's and Y.A. fiction at Laura Dail Literary Agency. When a reference misses the mark, she explained, it can pull young readers out of the story.
"Kids don't want to feel the adult behind the book," Roth Parker said.
Modernization is an attempt to avoid that.
"If we want readers to fall in love with the same story we fell in love with as teenagers, the best way to do that is to reach them where they are," Sutherland said.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Jun 3

Mea culpa, reposted something with bad non-descriptive alt-text. Full alt text below:

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· May 17

Okay I’m reading the first ACOTAR in a quest to educate myself about romantasy as a Books Professional and I can’t believe none of you told me the evil land in this series is just… Ireland. I mean.

Map from the series, showing Pythian, which roughly corresponds to the UK and is made up of various faerie “courts,” plus a sliver of mortal land, and Hybern (ie Hibernia), the evil place, which IS IRELAND

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 29

Her last book BAT EATER OR OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZHENG is one of the best COVID novels to date imo and it is BLOODY! She was so great to talk to including on her willingness to kill people off left and right:

KLB: First of all, I'll say your comment reminded me of one time someone
tagged me in a review of one of my books. They said, One thing I love about Kylie's books is that she'll kill any character at any moment, so you never know what will happen. I was like, Wait, I don't know if that's true. But I understand why people feel that way.
In my adult horror, that definitely does open up a lot more possibilities compared to when I'm writing young adult books, and I don't want to traumatize teenagers too much. It is nice to have that sort of freedom. In Bat Eater and in Japanese Gothic, I've been asked, Why did you kill off this specific character? Why did you have to do that?
I'm so sad that you did that.

For me, that is so much more salient, so much more meaningful than anything else in the book, especially because most horror tends to be standalone compared to other genres. Within a hundred pages of this character's death, everything's gonna end anyway. But I never try to kill someone just for the sake of it. I'm never into gratuitous blood and gore and death for no reason whatsoever. I really strongly believe that everything in horror has so much meaning.
I think a lot of the horror movies and books that fall flat for me are stories that misunderstand that, that think horror is just about people who love blood and guts, so let's shower them in blood and guts and kill everyone at the end. There's no emotional core, no soul to the story.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 27

Like... yes, it's hypocritical. But that is not really the central problem.

Currently, the acclaimed actress is starring in the Rudin-produced Death of a Salesman alongside Nathan Lane, directed by Joe Mantello. Earlier this season, she starred in Little Bear Ridge Road, which was initially commissioned by the beloved Chicago-based theater company Steppenwolf in 2024. When Rudin initially offered to produce Little Bear’s transfer to Broadway, Steppenwolf declined his offer because of the allegations. When no other producers wanted to do the show, The New Yorker now reports that Metcalf “threatened to quit” the company if it didn’t relinquish the rights to the play. Ultimately, it played Broadway for eight weeks, marking Rudin’s return to the Great White Way. “I find it hypocritical that some people want to work with him but didn’t want to be the first,” Metcalf said.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 26

totally disgusted to see this reposted by someone I follow. going to this event is a moral failure. that is the problem, not wearing a mask to a crowded event.

taylor lorenz screaming at the shooter for not wearing a mask

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 18

Then there’s this which… I don’t even know. The actors seem to consider this a much more ambiguous situation, for what it’s worth!

TVLINE | What does the Santos-Langdon dynamic look like come Season 3, now that he has apologized and she has verbalized how she feels about his return?
I think they'll get to a good place. It's a process, but they're both adults. She'll soften over time. He's a good doctor - he made a mistake - and she has to eventually forgive him for that.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 18

I’m sorry this is just so embarrassing. Dude you are straight up contradicting yourself in consecutive questions. www.tvline.com/2149438/the-...

demands of the emergency department?
Yeah. Due to the nature of a teaching hospital, a lot of people move on. That's part of the fabric of the show. One of the reasons we did a four-month jump was so we didn't have to move everyone out. We love these actors, we love writing for them, and the audience enjoys them, so it's bittersweet when we have to see someone leave, but it's part of the process. She struggled a little bit, and that's part of the reality of medicine - some people do better than others. She's very good at connecting with patients, but she doesn't move as quickly as is expected these days in the ER.
TVLINE | But it being only November, she would still be in the final year of her residency. So in this case, is it just that she's not on the shift?
Yeah, she's just not working that day.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 17

what are we even doing here. people are allowed to criticize the most popular show on tv.

If you get mad at THE PITT for not doing what you wanted THE PITT to do, you should try writing your own shit. I mean it! That's an impulse you can put to use instead of just being an entitled fan acting like art exists to meet your desires.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 13

Belatedly including the screenshot… right wing think tank lmao

Helen DeWitt
@helendewitt
...
I am delighted and more honored than I can possibly say - the Emergent Ventures program at the Mercatus Center has offered me a grant of $175,000 with no requirements of any kind in the way of publicity, attendance at meetings, or anything else.
12:36 PM • Apr 13, 2026 • 42.2K Views

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 11

With alt text Can’t believe how many people are replying to this being like “why didn’t you say something?” What effect do you expect saying this shit without confirmed sources to have? Even with incredible reporting people are still acting like this may all be some grand conspiracy.

Dave Weigel
@daveweigel.bsky.social • 1h
Joined Apr '23
Bluesky Elder
This is why Gallego instantly backing away is so striking. He apologized for believing him! They are furious.
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David Dayen
@ddayen.bsky.social • 1h
Joined May '23
Bluesky Elder
Because they all actually knew, and the escape plan if it ever got out was practiced, at least in their heads
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Jeff F @jfeej.bsky.social • 1h
Joined Sep '23
Do you have evidence of this?
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David Dayen
Joined May '23
If I knew, they knew
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Bluesky Elder
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Dante Atkins
@danteatkins.bsky.social
Joined Jun '23
Bluesky Elder
We all knew. Anyone who had any connections to California Hill members knew. I worked on the Hill 10 years ago as senior staff for a NorCal Congressman. We all knew. Swalwell groomed his interns and young staff over SnapChat. The fact that it took so long is an embarrassing failure all around.
5:15 PM • Apr 10, 2026
38 reposts
20 quotes
127 likes 7 saves

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Apr 2

Jesus fucking Christ

NETFLIX
LOUIS C.K. TO HEADLINE THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL MAY 5 AS PART OF NETFLIX IS A JOKE FEST HIS NEWEST STAND-UP SPECIAL, RIDICULOUS, WILL PREMIERE GLOBALLY ON NETFLIX THIS SUMMER
Louis C.K. will headline the iconic Hollywood Bowl on May 5 as part of Netflix Is a Joke Fest
•This summer, his newest stand-up special, Ridiculous, will premiere globally on Netfix. The special is directed and executive produced by the comedian himself. Additional EPs include Loa Cohen Zuckerman and Brady Nasfell
• Tickets for Louis C.K. at the Hollywood Bowl on May 5 as part of Netfix Is A Joke Fest will be available on Monday, April 6th at 10:00am PT. Tickets & festival information, including additional shows and events, can be found at netlfixisajokefest.com.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Mar 25

ME/CFS affects ~9 million Americans. There are no FDA-approved treatments. We need medical research funding to change that. Today advocates are asking Congress to change that - join us! It takes 5 minutes: solvecfs.quorum.us/campaign/157943/

MEICFS ADVOCACY WEEK 2026 • FEDERAL ADVOCACY DAY
ME/CFS has
No FDA-Approved
Treatments.
Ask your Senators and Representatives to sign onto Dear Colleague letters in support of our community appropriations requests — we need medical research funding.
Takes 5 minutes • Federal Advocacy Day • March 25, 2026

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 24

2. Cash gave an interview talking about writing against this stereotype of flat female characters by writing a comedic flat male character (who is very very funny). www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/meet...

CASH: I’m so glad. Well, I thought it would be kind of fun to write a one-dimensional male character as the boyfriend. I thought a trait for him would be that he just doesn’t really speak, but then I had to justify it, so I gave him horrible IBS. So he’s just in pain and grinning through it. I like the idea that silence breeds rumors, so everyone thinks he did all this terrible stuff, but in reality he just has a stomach ache. He’s ultimately a redeeming but a one-note character, which not to get on my feminist soapbox, but tends to be reserved for female characters. I thought it could be kind of fun to switch.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 24

1. There is barely any sex in the novel and good sex IS seen as something worth striving for. The girls are Catholic but only nominally.

as linguistic currency to obscure the emptiness of their beliefs. In interviews they say they’re writing about flat, archetypical women as a way to skewer male perceptions. But merely depicting misogyny, sex work, conservatism, the shallowness of internet culture, and eating disorders is not inherently radical or progressive. Their novels are about “flat” women who only want men and sex and to be skinny. (Anika Lade Levy went so far as to say she purposefully attempts to write two dimensional female characters.) Each novel follows a Catholic young woman who wants to be loved---often told in fragments and sketchy asides that don’t add up to much. While they’re seeking erotic fulfillment, their values don’t allow them to enjoy sex. Conservatism is always anti-body. If you can’t enjoy your body, how can you enjoy sex?

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 24

That said, Byron in this essay repeatedly argues that Cash uses the family's crisis, set off by the mother opening the marriage, as an argument in favor of the nuclear family. The parents do go into crisis, but the novel resolves with the family happily living in a (queer!) polyamorous arrangement.

dream while their parents try out an open marriage. “The Flynns’ marital ‘arrangement’ seemed neither exploratory in the swinging-sixties sense nor justified in the new age liberal poly-whathaveyou sense but rather a creative avenue through which each spouse could inflict pain upon the other and their three daughters,” she writes bleakly. It’s a “nonconsensual nonmonogamous spell.” Imagine if Jonathan

friend” and Lost Lambs follows a family collapsing after they open their marriage and their kids lose all sense of their values. Womanhood, these books argue, requires total self-abnegation. The yonic is empty. No wonder they run with the boys.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 12

This is perhaps the most egregious bit. If anything, WH is MORE attuned to these issues than JE, which certainly engages with them but in a pretty uncritical way. It’s also worth pointing out that “Creole” in this context does not mean Black but, generally, a white personal born in the Caribbean.

The Victorian-literature specialist Catherine Robson has another theory: "The feeling that he should be of African heritage, I think that is interference coming in from her sister's book. Because we do know that in Jane Eyre, Bertha Rochester is born in Jamaica." (The subject of Bertha's Creoleness has been taken up by many writers, including postcolonial scholar Gayatri Spivak and Wide Sargasso Sea author Jean Rhys.)

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 9

Okay things I'm learning from the WUTHERING HEIGHTS reviews. 1. Linton is played by a person of color??? (Shazad Latif.) This woman could not understand the book less if she tried oh my god. 2. From Peter Bradshaw's review: ?????!!! www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

The family’s fortunes being in dire straits, Cathy marries wealthy milquetoast neighbour Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), thus breaking the heart of Heathcliff, who storms off; he returns, wealthy, after a few years and has a passionate affair with Cathy, who learns the truth about why he left. When he ends up spitefully marrying Edgar’s simpering sister Isabella (played by Alison Oliver, amusingly channelling Sophie Thompson). Fennell makes light of his cruelty to her by casting Isabella as a smirkingly consenting sub.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 3

I was hearing sleazy shit about Lorin at age 22 when, I cannot stress this enough, I had ZERO connections to anything. He was dating some girl someone I knew met in a college class, et cetera.

From: "jeffrey E." <jeevacation@gmail.com>
To: Michael Wolff <
Subject: Re: FYI
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:50:37 +0000
tough
On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 11:26 AM, Michael Wolff <
> wrote:
Below email is mostly self-explanatory. Just to add that Lorin Stein, a friend of mine, was the well-regarded
worth supporting. Thoughts?
I'm off to London (GQ Man of the Year!) and back at the end of next week. m
------ Forwarded message ---
From: Lorin Stein <
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 11:08 AM
Subject: confidential advice
To: <
Dear Michael,
The writer Stephen Elliott got in touch yesterday. He was on the Shitty Media Men List and is looking for gal representation. He's not at all dumb or crazy. His pitch letter is below. I'd be grateful if you had any ide could pass along. (He is correct that Donegan has sold a book proposal
If you're moved to ask around, I'd ask that you please leave my name out of it.
I hope this finds you very well -
Lorin

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Feb 1

Conclusion of the Liam Ramos ruling with alt text

Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.
Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this
administration's detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.
Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Jan 3

With alt text (Clarke is my rep)

Loette:
Clarke
In a brazen affront to the rule of law and the U.S.
Constitution and without any rational consideration of the grave consequences that will inevitably follow, in the dead of night, Donald Trump has plunged the United States into yet
another dangerous foreign entanglement by unleashing direct military strikes upon Venezuela's
capital anc
capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
For years, Maduro's authoritarian rule has oppressed Venezuelans and weakened their country. He was a despot with no regard for his own nation. His people have endured instability under his leadership un est much so that many took great risks to seek asylum behind our borders.
However, this is not a case of the ends justifying the means.
Despite this military operation and considering Donald Trump's comments in its aftermath, it has become crystal clear that toppling Maduro for narco-trafficking was far from the primary reason the administration engaged militarily with Venezuela. This reckless and non-congressionally sanctioned regime change was driven not by national security, but by the pursuit of oil riches. This action has no place in U.S. foreign policy. It is an illegal and illegitimate doctrine of extreme aggression sanctioned solely by the executive branch.
1/2
»

Loette.
Clarke
Since the Trump administration first initiated strikes off the coast of Venezuela, Americans have overwhelmingly
aread these this unhined escalation. Presiant Trump
lacked both the righteousness and the constitutional respect to bring his war before Congress. Had he done so, I would have voted no.
This impulsive interventionism does not make Americans sater; it leaves our global reputation in tatters and turther destabilizes an already volatile region and our South American and Caribbean relations. Worse still, Donald Trump has now threatened a lasting U.S. occupation of Venezuela and refuses to rule out a significant presence of American troops on the ground. The Venezuelan people deserve their chance at freedom. They do not wish to substitute their dictator with America's.
The Trump administration's actions today will only serve to embolden and implicitly endorse our adversaries to carry out their own military aggressions against sovereign nations, eroding international norms and the rule of law. They have also paved the way for further interventions by Donald Trump and his enablers. The President's imperial pursuits will not end with Venezuela. If left unchecked, more illegal military aggressions loom just over our horizon - they will undoubtedly come at great cost to American lives, resources, and moral standing.
###

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Dec 16

“He has the impulse to protect people. When he saw people laying on the ground and the blood everywhere, immediately his conscience and his soul compelled him to pounce on one of the terrorists,” he said. “I feel pride and honor because my son is a hero of Australia.”

His mother, Malakeh Hasan Al Ahmed, said she is “proud that my son was helping people; he saved lives, souls. God will not harm him because he’s a do-gooder. My son has always been brave, helps people, he’s like that.”

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Dec 10

relatedly, can't abide this laudatory framing of a massive TERF. like wow how amazing that you escaped a totalitarian regime in order to have the freedom to engage in hate speech. congratulations

“So I agree with him on one issue out of a hundred,” Navratilova said.

“When I defected and I was able to say anything I wanted to,” she adds in the video, “I did.”

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Dec 4

Well, yes.

Word cloud visualization for 2025 showing your 50 most-used words, sized by frequency. Top 10: "book" (109×), "books" (76×), "reading" (57×), "fucking" (41×), "obviously" (37×), "show" (37×), "movie" (37×), "novel" (36×), "makes" (35×), "those" (32×) (from Anisota's Annual Bluesky Harvest)

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Nov 15

I try not to repost absolute garbage but the backlash targeting disabled people is so intense right now this feels worth highlighting. People who have succeeded within a certain system are, obviously, very invested in believing that that system proves that they are actually the "best."

Tweet from Josh Barro: "This stuff is such bullshit. If you have a condition that makes it hard for you to complete work in a time limit, that's something your grades should measure, not something they should avoid measuring."

Tweet quoted from Paul Novosod: "Every study of how accomodations affect your GPA: they help A LOT. Students with accommodations can get extra time on..." [graph]

Morgan Leigh Davies@mldavies· Nov 12