Mondo 2000 (1990s)
Related: cyber- - R. U. Sirius - American literature
Mondo 2000 issue 13
Mondo 2000 : A User's Guide to the New Edge (1992) [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Description
Mondo 2000 was a glossy 'cyberculture' magazine published in California during the 1980s and 90s. It covered cyberpunk topics such as VR and smart drugs. It was seen as a more anarchic or subversive reflection of its later contemporary, Wired magazine.
Mondo 2000 originated as High Frontiers in 1984, edited by R. U. Sirius (pseudonym for Ken Goffman) and Queen Mu (Allison Bailey Kennedy). Sirius was joined by hacker Jude Milhon (a.k.a St Jude) as editor and the magazine was renamed Reality Hackers in 1988 to better reflect its drugs and computers theme. It changed name again to Mondo 2000 in 1989. The magazine continued to be published under this name until the last issue, published in 1998.
Writers featured included William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, and Robert Anton Wilson. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_2000 [Mar 2005]
[I]f you have read Mondo 2000 magazine before, then nothing in this book will be much of a surprise. In fact in 1998 this book is clearly retro. Still, to the new reader you will find much of the information interesting. The format is basically an A-Z of popular memes and cultural phenomena with a pseudo hypertext interface. High gloss and flashy. Suitable for a coffee table, but you might want to keep it on your reference shelf. Limited availability. Mentions Gilles Deleuze and Georges Bataille in bibliography. Bataille in the 'meat' section. Wired magazine came one year later.
Parents who thumb through Mondo 2000 will find much here to upset them. An article on house music makes popping MDMA (ECSTASY) and thrashing all night to music that clocks 120 beats per minute sound like an experience no red-blooded teenager would want to miss. After describing in detail the erotic effects of massive doses of L-dopa, MDA and deprenyl, the entry on aphrodisiacs adds as an afterthought that in some combinations these drugs can be fatal. Essays praising the beneficial effects of psychedelics and smart drugs on the ''information processing'' power of the brain sit alongside RANTS that declare, among other things, that ''safe sex is boring sex'' and that ''cheap thrills are fun.'' --http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,977654,00.html [Mar 2005]