Polar Opposites

[Shana A]

Polar Opposites
By Gendy Alimurung Thursday, Sep 23 2010

http://www.laweekly.com/2010-09-23/columns/polar-opposites/

So, there's this man who used to be a woman, who wrote a novel about a polar bear who moves to Hollywood and becomes best friends with Leonardo DiCaprio. Beaufort — that's the polar bear — lands a job at Nobu, buys a house in the Hollywood Hills, meets a bitchy Icelandic model, acquires a drug habit and writes a one-man show. Much to everyone's surprise, author T Cooper's included, the novel, titled The Beaufort Diaries, has been selling fast.

snip

"The book has no trans stuff in it at all," Cooper said. "But people can read a transgender narrative into it. The polar bear is the ultimate outsider." Yes, Cooper is a transgender man. No, Beaufort is not a transgender bear. But he is transhuman. His is meant to be a clichéd epic hero's journey, "like Odysseus."