Morgan Giles

If you wonder why I am the way I am, consider that my mother, who is tone deaf, would not sing me lullabies when I was small but instead recited the Canterbury Tales until I fell asleep

1300 easily, 1200 with effort. About the same as in Japanese, oddly enough!

there are millions of people in the world who do not understand how to step onto and off of escalators, and they all take turns visiting London

"Mommy, I want to go home. Soft play is too dark and"—a child dressed as Spiderman brushes past—"Spiderman keeps touching me."

I'm trying to find the humor in this insane system but it's not easy! Thank you

just had an appointment that I waited 6 months for which I thought was THE appointment but no, I am now on the waiting list. the 12-18 month waiting list 😊

wile e coyote painting a tunnel on a wall

nhs: hey 😊 there's a light at the end of the tunnel 😊
the tunnel in question:

thought I'd been on a 3+ month waiting list for mental healthcare only to find out my GP didn't refer me until yesterday. this has crushed my spirit more than I can describe. I hate it here AND it never stops fucking raining

嫌ね、世の中って

there really is a particular type of misogynistic abuse I only get when I'm with my toddler. men fucking hate their mothers, I guess

many would say definitely don't do it for that reason

RT if you're tired

in the 90s when eBay kicked off my dad started selling his old playboy and penthouse mags, and according to family legend, his mint copy of the issue of playboy featuring the first Black playmate of the month is now in the Smithsonian collection 🫡 I had no business knowing all that as a 9 year old

Running into people you like is honestly an underrated part of what makes life feel worth living

I've had enough of these streets that sweat a cold, yellow slime, of hostile people, of crying myself to sleep every night.

got on what I thought was the 55 bus. eventually noticed it was going a different way. asked the man across the aisle:
"is this the 55?"
"no, it's the 20 to Debden," scathingly.
"oh? it said 55 on the back..."
"no, it didn't."
"sorry?"
"no, it didn't."
(it did.)

nobody else is brave enough to tell you that the best part of Marty Supreme is when they ghostride the whip

reading Pynchon at soft play

the horror was dully lodged in my brain until I said it out loud and it ripped through me

cosmic misery

A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated The sight of my work, torn and singed but still legible, made me realise the importance of translating and protecting stories – so they remain when everything else falls away

A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated

I feel strongly it's the papasan chair but who has room??

a man in a suit is holding a pink object ALT: a man in a suit is holding a pink object

i miss when this guy was the only LLM

In a Place Far Removed from Language The End of August is a novel that does not shy away from the horrors of life under colonial control and war. Beauty and brutality coexist within it, perhaps in equal measures. Still, some parts are…

On translating trauma in The End of August and summoning rituals to try to reach a place far removed from language: allwrongsreversed.net/2026/01/06/i...

In-hale ex-hale The most repeated phrase in The End of August, in Japanese, is すっすっはっは (su-su-ha-ha), an onomatopeoic representation of the sound of breathing in rhythm, as one does when running. Not in-out-in-out…

On the gift of the most-repeated phrase in The End of August, and how no translator is an island: allwrongsreversed.net/2026/01/06/i...

I put the final couple of essays I wrote about translating The End of August up on my website. Happy new year!

thanks, wasn't sure

new year's day in my neighborhood means a working men's club with a dj playing the fall with a projection of despicable me 2 behind him

I know I don't succeed, but look how hard I try.

today's the day. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go to the pharmacy and ask for pseudoephedrine