I've met him in person btw and he's a fucking sweetheart
[ID: Text-intensive Twitter thread from the Shapeshifters chest binders Twitter account in reply to a post by artist and author Ursula Vernon. Vernon says, A non-zero number of you apparently did not know that The Last Unicorn was a book before it was a movie. It is by Peter S. Beagle. It is made of spun glass and fairytales and iron knives and there are individual lines that I would give my lungs to have written. Shapechangers replies, I saw him every year at NYCC for several years straight, bought something at his table, asked him to sign it, and we spoke. He remembered me from year to year, no small feat at that con. He remembered which stories he'd told me. One year I came back with a different gender on. He squinted at me a bit and said thoughtfully, "I've seen you before in this place." All I had to say was, "last year you told me the story about the inoshishi." And his face cleared, and he leaned in with a grin and told me about a German guitarist who he traveled with, twice. Who transitioned between the first and second time, so he'd gotten to meet this person all over again on the second round. It was a wonderfully kind way to let me know that everything was fine. I was fresh out of the closet and I needed that, and maybe he could see it. The Last Unicorn is the best book in the world and I will defend it and its author til I die. the end. /end ID]
I don't usually talk about celebrities; artists, when I do, and I'm keenly aware that one needn't be a good person to be a hell of a heartwrenching artist. But Peter S. Beagle has written a few of my favorite things in the world, he's an excellent singer and filker, and this Twitter thread was dreadfully important to me. I don't want it going away as Twitter becomes Shitter, because it's so often bad news, isn't it? It's important to me to share trans joy.
as a trans who used this book as a medium to help rationalise my feelings, this makes my heart so happy
Yeah... I think about The Last Unicorn prolly several times a week on average. At some point after my egg finally shattered in 2018 in my 30s, I started to worry, what with all the other folks who seem to need to opine and array against us, what that sweetheart of a man would think of me now. That's when my wife pointed out this thread to me. I cried. Happy tears, you know how it is. I most often linked it to people on Discord, but decided it was time to put it somewhere I could find it when Xitter was done flushing. I am very very glad it's been so important to people. It is important. But sometimes important things don't get traction.
A golden memory.
I was thinking about this moment again today, trying to remember exactly what he said to me, in that noisy crowded artists' alley on that hot October day. It was something about how it was a gift, how he'd received the gift of learning and knowing his friend the guitarist more fully, this wonderful present of traveling with their true self. He spoke about it with gratitude, with a wellspring of warmth that showed how happy it had made him. I think Peter Beagle might have been the first person to imply to me that my transition is a gift to others. That living my life fully and honestly is a way of gifting others with something precious and good, something that they can appreciate and remember for decades later. What a skill. What a power. He didn't miss a beat. He just whipped out an anecdote from his own life that told me, (a) it was fine, I was fine, (b) I wasn't his first trans person, not by a longshot, not by years and years, (c) my transitioning was a good and wonderful thing actually, (d) there are trans adults out in the world doing cool shit like touring Europe with famous fantasy authors, (e) he was happy to know them, and me. All layered in a quick story over a signed book. I've met charismatic people. Politicians, leaders, authors, musicians, people who could grab your attention with a few words and a warm gesture and a spark in their eyes. People who could suss out the right thing to say within minutes, people who could launch into an impromptu speech that lasted hours and captivated everyone around them. None of them hit me with that Ring of Keys moment like Peter Beagle, can you feel my heart / saying hi?, except maybe John Darnielle. I hope someday I can touch people's lives like that. I've been so fucking fortunate. I have to survive long enough to help someone else like he helped me.

























