Long live St. Jude.

July 22, 2003 11:23 AM

St. Jude is dead. Senior editor of influential cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000 (the magazine that arguably inspired Wired) and the original grrl-hacker, dead at age unknown. She coined the term "cypherpunk," wrote interesting books, and encouraged every girl to get online.
posted by waxpancake (14 comments total)

.
posted by dolface at 11:33 AM on July 22, 2003

Wow, yeah Reality Hacker and later Mondo 2000 help shape some of my views during the teen angsty years.
Reality Hacker started off right with a mix of tech hacking, smart drugs, and fashion photography... What?, You see something wrong with that?
Mondo 2000 with its whenever we get around to it publishing timeline lost me a bit by never being able to find it on the shelves and further lost me with it's San Francisco more Bohemian intellectual then you vibe.... but it also got me to move to the Bay Area to soak in it.
posted by dirtylittlemonkey at 11:50 AM on July 22, 2003

I'll dust off my copy of the Real Cyberpunk Fakebook tonight...
posted by PenDevil at 12:01 PM on July 22, 2003

When I was at college, I started working for the women's center, helping them put together their website and computer lab. My boss (who co-wrote her own 'girls on the web' book) introduced me to St. Jude, and, after that, I was converted.

"We should look at the Internet as the life-skills school so many of us girls never attended, and get out there and learn to conquer our fears of not being nice enough, not being polite enough, not being strong enough, not being pretty enough, or smart enough or anything enough."

Yes, yes, YES.
posted by Katemonkey at 12:05 PM on July 22, 2003

.
posted by gd779 at 12:30 PM on July 22, 2003

I got to know a bunch of the Mondo crowd when my publisher was trying to make them an offer to come under our imprint. They were a hoot...I adored St. Jude.

Her definition of hacking -- "the clever circumvention of imposed limits, whether imposed by your government, your own skills or the laws of physics", has always struck a chord in me. She will be missed.
posted by dejah420 at 2:28 PM on July 22, 2003

Where are the Mondo 2000s of today?
posted by mecran01 at 2:39 PM on July 22, 2003

Where have all the hackers gone. Long time last seen.

A sad day indeed.
posted by IndigoSkye at 3:37 PM on July 22, 2003

Hrm, what did this woman look like?
posted by delmoi at 9:10 PM on July 22, 2003

delmoi: Why does it matter what she looked like? If this thread was about a male, no one would even be asking that question.
posted by sanitycheck at 10:21 PM on July 22, 2003

delmoi:

this
posted by monkey closet at 2:14 AM on July 23, 2003

"We should look at the Internet as the life-skills school so many of us girls never attended, and get out there and learn to conquer our fears of not being nice enough, not being polite enough, not being strong enough, not being pretty enough, or smart enough or anything enough."

As a male, I'd like to point out that "boy" fits perfectly well in the above sentence too. Especially for geeky ones. *grumble*, sexism *mutter*.

As for Ms Jude, she sounds like she was cool. Damn shame this had to be the first time I heard about her.
posted by Freaky at 3:00 AM on July 23, 2003

indeed

a toast to good times
to the good times
posted by firestorm at 10:54 AM on July 23, 2003

I'll miss St. Jude too.
posted by Joi at 7:23 AM on July 28, 2003