On the personal apocalypse

I wrote a memoir of personal apocalypse, Bad Fire. (See more on tuckerlieberman.com)

This passage from someone else's blog reminds me of the process and the message.

"Apocalyptic fiction, especially stories about personal apocalypses, can do so much to help trans people understand themselves and their place in the world. Once you realize that you have survived one, you can learn to be kinder to yourself. You woke up one day, and whether you expected it or not, your previous life was nothing but ruins. Nothing was usable. Maybe you tried to pretend that it was for awhile. Maybe even a few of your friends survived the cataclysm. Maybe you can rebuild together, side by side. Perhaps that hides that it was an apocalypse to you. Maybe you’re convinced you’re the last sane one, the last vestment of the old world, unaware of how the new one has changed you. Maybe you feel like Frankenstein’s monster: bright, smart, the mental embodiment of all that the previous civilization seemed to value, and yet the villagers chase you. 'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.' Or maybe the freedom of that old world’s death is exhilarating to you. Maybe it suffocated you. Maybe this new freedom is what you always longed for. We can learn so much from surviving an apocalypse. Many of us survive several in our lives: transition, divorce, imprisonment, destitution."
Unstuck In Gender: The Experience of Trans Apocalypse: On experiencing transition as apocalypse, Auto_Anon, May 11, 2026