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Inigo Purcell

@inigopurcell.bsky.social

870 followers 540 following 9.5K 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 · 35m

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

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 37m

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 · 39m

(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 · 42m

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 · 2h

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 · 2h

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 · 2h

(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 · 2h

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 · 5h

(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 · 5h

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 · 5h

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 · 19h

(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 · 19h

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 · 19h

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 · 22h

Would mind it less, I mean.

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 22h

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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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 23h

(Like, there has been great world building in the comicsverse over the years about how people get older but this superhero thing keeps going, not always with them at the centre of it. This stuff is very easy to transfer to the medium of film as it is character based and relatable)

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 23h

Right. Channel the vibe of the 2000s comics runs where one of the main things going on was that Peter Parker was a science teacher in an inner city school and was now a proper grown up. Those were great introductory Spider-Mans and had a real nostalgia appeal to older readers.

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Reposted by Inigo Purcell

Sena Bryer @senabryer.com · 1d

Still looking for someone, haven't found a single person so far (that I can contact). I have a 46-episode script that I need translated. This would be a paid job!

Sena Bryer @senabryer.com · 12d

Completely unrelated to my 2am doomposting but does anyone know an English to Japanese translator, ideally with experience in screenplays?

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Reposted by Inigo Purcell

Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 1d

Random thought: I've bought out my teaching load in the spring. If anyone I know is interested in me presenting some part of my work (vast early America, contemporary religion & politics, game studies, I guess medieval America) for their uni or school or organization, I'd love to talk to you.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Once my mum apologised for having some frozen stuff as part of Christmas dinner and was convinced her ancestors would be disappointed in her. She did appreciate me pointing out that the generations of Irish people who had spent a lot of time preparing veg might be pleased this was now an option.

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Also: a strong opening is great but it's really not the entirety of a book and a lot of books grow on you as you read. There is often a reason books are as long as they are, and in an ideal world that is in order to contain at least a little complexity.

Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

The good end of mediocre is hard to obtain and we often get really good stuff by people having managed to pull off High Level Mediocre for quite a while. We should generally be nicer about the fact that High Level Mediocre is tricky, while also not over elevating it.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Okay: I think we spend too much time talking about what the best works by individuals are and should think more about corpora as a whole. One often has to have written some things in order to write other things, and those works shouldn't be placed in competition with each other.

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Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry to hear. Thinking of you. (Had a run of A&E visits earlier this year and it is just distinctly Beckettian at the moment)