Monad: Essays on Science Fiction
Entry updated 10 October 2022. Tagged: Publication.
US critical journal edited by Damon Knight, published irregularly by Pulphouse Publishing. Three issues, September 1990, March 1992 and September 1993. All issues were digest-sized.
This journal was announced in the first issue's editorial as a forum for "s.f. writers" who can uniquely "criticize it from the inside", in contrast to the "fans and academics" who "sometimes publish very foolish things". However, after a first issue that featured a stellar lineup of writers – Brian W Aldiss, Thomas M Disch, Ursula K Le Guin, Bruce Sterling, and Knight himself – the other two issues did have essays by the critics Michel Meurger, Thomas Perry and Gary Westfahl, while also including the sf writers Aldiss (again), Eleanor Arnason, John Barnes, John T Sladek and William F Wu. Monad's essays were generally excellent, but Knight took his time in producing issues and neither he nor Pulphouse made any effort to publicize the journal, so it was almost entirely ignored. Knight did gather essays for a fourth issue that never appeared, such as a Westfahl essay that later appeared in Science Fiction Studies; but the demise of Pulphouse in 1996 effectively ended the publication. [GW]
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