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Inigo Purcell

@inigopurcell.bsky.social

870 followers 540 following 9.6K posts

Novelist, non-fiction writer and academic. Writing a book about Arthur in the British Imagination from 1138-present. Often not thinking about the 21st century by default (he/him) inigopurcell.wordpress.com

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · Jan 16

My short story about the heatwave of 2017, egg freezing, Sir Kenneth Clark's Civilization: A Personal View and allowing oneself to imagine a future

www.themanifeststation.net/2025/01/15/t...

Transitional Summer | The Manifest Station

There are a lot of appointments that summer: ultrasounds every few days, blood tests, and other routine ones which are finally coming around.

www.themanifeststation.net

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 2h

(Gym is level access, a v. short distance from my house and 24 hours. All of which makes trying to use it a bit more viable for me)

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 2h

... last year might appreciate how much of a difference this being possible is.

(The capsaicin treatment does seem to have had a really good effect on the bad foot so far. Also, the year and a bit of trying to gradually increase weight bearing on that foot)

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 2h

I have managed the gym in some form two days in a row. (Today that means with headphones, deliberately giving myself ages to get there and back and going when it is quiet, plus only doing mild cardio).

I know this is far from my default, but people who remember how immobile I was this time...

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 2h

Thank you for this.

Reposted by Inigo Purcell

Krystal Kavita Jagoo, MSW (She/Her/Hers) 🇹🇹👊🏽✍️🏾♊️♊️♏️ @equitableforall.com · 2h

Since we cannot rely on AI to provide an expected pain score based on an app, just re-sharing this pain scale for those of us who continue to need a way to articulate how pain impacts our quality of life, as validated by this research (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...) in case it may be helpful.

A multi-coloured graphic is seen.

Text, as follows:

PAIN SEVERITY SCALE

SEVERITY DESCRIPTION

10/UNABLE TO MOVE: I am in bed and can't move because of my pain. I need someone to take me to the ER.

9/SEVERE: My pain is all that I1 can think about. I can barely talk or move because of the pain.

8/INTENSE: My pain is so severe that it is hard to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.

7/UNMANAGEABLE: I'm in pain all the time. It keeps me from starting most activities.

6/DISTRESSING: I think about my pain all the time. I have to stop during most activities because of my pain.

5/DISTRACTING: I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some activities because of my pain.

4/MODERATE: I am constantly aware of my pain but I can continue most of my activities.

3/UNCOMFORTABLE: My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.

2/MILD: I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.

1/MINIMAL: My pain is hardly noticeable.

0/NO PAIN: I have no pain.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 3h

It is extremely good, too, on conveying that everyone in it is in overlapping but separate emotional worlds (and often forgetting that). The actress who plays Susannah does so much with her part and I feel like there is a whole barely glimpse movie about her Getting Through Christmas that year.

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 3h

... and that expecting likeability from all female characters is reductive and demented.

(And yeah, someone should. A big part of why it succeeds where it does is that it makes choices and allows people be messy. Agree on Everett, that bit always feels the weakest)

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 3h

Early reviews were really obsessed with the fact that Meredith is "not likeable" (ignoring that her not being immediately likably winsome is a big part of the point). SJP had a really good riposte to this along the lines that lots of amazing women she knows and loves aren't immediately likeable...

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah I think that is part of what works and what makes it feel real, on some level, while feeling deeply unreal at the same time.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 6h

Good to hear. Wishing you a speedy and gentle recovery.

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 6h

But yes - it is a bizarre film and yet intensely moving in some ways. (One of the reasons I like it is that I feel Meredith is someone who in other films would solely exist as terrible girlfriend who is there to get dumped, but she's allowed be the protagonist).

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 6h

(Also I very much read Meredith as autistic and high-masking (at least in this context) - she is trying to follow the rules and get things right, and it just makes things worse because she is following the wrong rules and can't find the right ones)

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 6h

I saw a great quote from the writer and director about how a lot of it is about the family just desperately trying to avoid sadness, and thus (largely) turning on Meredith and feeling irritation and anger because they have to feel something.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 8h

Yeah. (No one was completely baffled by me saying flat, it was just people were more likely to say apartment. Also there are so many Brits in Aus that they tend to encounter a fair amount of British English).

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 8h

I remember having to consciously correct to "apartment" while there (and things generally being advertised as apartments rather than flats, if that helps) but there might be regional variations or colloquial stuff I missed

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 8h

(For the latter: if you ever want to really depress yourself read subreddits about advice columns. A weird concentration of people adamantly certain everyone else is living their life wrong on some way and, frequently, that they are also being distressed in the wrong way)

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 8h

Really like this. It articulates something I've been worrying about for a bit and haven't seen discussed at length. (The way social media's default tone is highly judgemental, both in a horribly tone deaf way the way you describe here and also in a lower key routine way about harmless things).

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11h

(One of my worst ever customers was when I was 20 and working Christmas Eve retail and she asked "are you tired" while I was trying to wrap her stuff and when I said yes said "you can tell" in a bitchy tone.

Of course I was tired, it was 3pm on a Christmas eve shift and we had been busy all week.)

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11h

Like it probably bloody means "I need two minutes to finish putting the sugar out/turn the coffee machine on/something else which is small but does make a difference to how things go." The customer loses very little by being gracious.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11h

Also, honestly, we've all had time get away from us or needed an extra minute to get stuff actually sorted before Letting People In. (That can make the difference between the next three hours going well and them being a nightmare). It's good when customers remember this.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

(Also not phrasing that well and it's not the only period in history it has ever happened in but I do feel it is a real factor in the current grimness)

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Hmm. I think there's something interesting there and I think one of the things that does make stuff especially grim at the moment is the idea (from various places) that it is naive or selfish or somehow wrong to even *want* better than the current options or a better or nicer life.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

This is why I am a millenial who owns a physical address book, I think. Because it doesn't guarantee the address is there (or that I can find the address book) but I know what I need to look for (and I try and update it when I do know where it is)

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Would mind it less, I mean.

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Also I would mind the "every third film is a superhero film" if they involved more light, funny stuff that you to which you could take your mum or use as a date night film with someone you didn't yet know well? Like, if they were aiming for "normal films, with superheroes" more of the time.

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