I LOVE Rocky's book eating SO much. I do understand why they changed it for the movie (snappy, funny, really quickly gives watchers another idea of how different yet similar the two are) but I like the book's take on it more.

Rocky's shame and aversion to this is so interesting! I do think the movie version can be squared away as both a streamlining change and ALSO a 'Rocky is insane from isolation' change. He acts so different because he is so destroyed from not being around anyone for 40 years that he's willing to fist himself in front of strangers. That can be fun to dig into!

But nothing, unfortunately, will ever supplant my adoration for the book eating scene. Rocky shying away from Grace to isolate himself becasue the shame around the process is that entrenched. Telling him to shut up while he does his business and prepares his food. Flopping over and showing hole (!!!) and delicately packing himself full of food and then whimpering for Grace to watch him sleep after (!!!!!!!) .................... GOD

For example, it has been widely accepted to a certain extent since forever but especially so in the past five years that low levels of serotonin are not the cause of depression. This has been established over and over again through studies and is acknowledged by basically every psychiatrist. And yet you will get called anti-science for stating this well-established fact because people have been told otherwise by their therapists, their psychiatrists, mental health advocacy organizations, and instagram graphics.

On a larger scale, it is also known and reluctantly acknowledged within the profession that there is no known biological cause for any psychiatric diagnosis. (A small number of conditions in the DSM do have known biological causes, such as “Major or Mild Neurocognitive Disorder Due to HIV Infection”, but these are not primarily psychiatric disorders, they are symptoms of illnesses primarily treated by other disciplines where the patient may also see a mental health practitioner as part of their treatment.) But people also do not believe you when you say this because they have heard so many times from mental health professionals and organizations that mental illnesses are biological diseases like any other.

2026 - 2025 - 2024 - 2023

in spite of it all, happy 2026 pride.

you can download current and past hi-res versions of these over at my ko-fi (ok to print for personal use): https://ko-fi.com/mxmorgan/shop/freedownloads

you can also snag shirts here which go to various orgs: https://mxmorgan.threadless.com/collections/pride

these get reposted a whole lot from here to reddit to twitter to tiktok and on and on, and i don't personally care whether or not i'm credited. i made these for everyone to use, enjoy, and find meaning in them. i appreciate folks who do credit me, but if able, please at least link to the threadless shop in the previous post - folks can get an official shirt where 90% of earnings go to trans led orgs focused on mental health (which is an important matter in general, but very personal to me) and not from a scam bot site selling AI-churned maga garbage where you probably won't get one anyway. i also suggest downloading the files from my ko-fi - they are free/PWYW and you can use them to make your own shirt, patch, embroidery project, whatever. tips are always nice, cuz i do like a pizza now and then, but never required for download.