From September 15 until September 27, author and philosopher Simon(e) van Saarloos (1990, Summit, New Jersey) will tour through the States and Canada promoting her book ‘Playing Monogamy’. Originally written in Dutch and published by De Bezige Bij, Publication Studio is excited to bring this book to an English speaking audience for the very first time. This edition of the book, translated by Liz Waters, will include a preface by Leni Zumas, author of the US bestseller ‘Red Clocks’.
Love is love, but not really. To recognize love as love we need comprehensible images. What are those contemporary images that help us identify love and how could we identify love differently, figuring it as less defined by safety procedures, measured commitment and feelings of ownership and entitlement? ‘Playing Monogamy’ refuses to see personal relationships as safe havens where people can hide from the precarities of society, and instead proposes to make public life more intimate and romantic.
Through a contemporary rereading of the cult of monogamy, Van Saarloos playfully queers the way in which the structure of monogamy is upheld through social convention within Western contexts. Written for more of a lay audience, the book proposes an expanded and polyamorous engagement with intimacy and sexuality as a possible alternative.
‘Playing Monogamy’ designed by Yin Yin Wong
September 17, 2019 at 2727 California Street in Berkeley, CA, USA.
September 18, 2019 at Mother Foucault’s Bookshop in Portland, OR, USA.
September 20, 2019 at READ books in Vancouver, Canada.
September 22, 2019 at Oasis Aqualounge in Toronto, Canada.
September 23, 2019 at Good For Her in Toronto, Canada.
September 25, 2019 at Tubby and Coo’s Mid-City Bookshop in New Orleans, LA, USA.
September 27, 2019 at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Simon(e) van Saarloos is a writer, philospher and performer living between Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Brooklyn, New York City. She has published several books in Dutch including ‘Ik deug / deug niet’ (a collection of columns originally published in the Dutch national newspaper NRC), ‘De vrouw die’ (a novel on a molecular biologist running the NYC marathon in a burqa) and ‘Enz’. ‘Het Wildersproces’ (a feminist and queer report of the trial against the Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders). Her forthcoming book, titled ‘Herdenken herdacht’, is a non-fiction work about queer forgetfulness, white erasure and embodied commemoration. Simon(e) also writes and performs theatre and regularly appears on stage as a lecturer and interviewer. Currently, she is an MA student at the Dutch Art Institute. Her recent artist residencies include the Deltaworkers in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft.
Simon(e) van Saarloos by Mona van den Berg
