Love is love, but not really. To recognise 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. 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. We are also happy to share that this edition of the book, translated by Liz Waters, will include a foreword by Leni Zumas, author of the US bestseller Red Clocks, and a revised preface by Simon(e), addressing how they might approach writing about nonmonogamy differently four years after the book’s first publication—and after many experiences in between.
Order your copy or ebook through Publication Studio
- Episode – SexOutLoud podcast interview with Tristan Taormino on Playing Monogamy, 20 July 2020.
- Episode 248 – MultiAmory podcast interview on Playing Monogamy, nov 2019
- Interview with Melissa Matthewson, The Rumpus, January 2020
Playing Monogamy was read and appreciated by
Jack Halberstam, Mona Eltahawy, Viva Ruiz (Thank God for Abortion) and Prince Kim / Kim Cunningham
Playing Monogamy Book Tour, USA, Canada, EU
September 17, 2019 at 2727 California Street in Berkeley, CA, USA. In conversation with Koe Creation (author of This heart holds many)September 18, 2019 at Mother Foucault’s Bookshop in Portland, OR, USA. In conversation with Leni Zumas (author of Red Clocks)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. In conversation with Andrea Zanin (author of SexGeek)
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.
October 24, 2019 at Tender Center in Rotterdam, NL
November 9, 2019 at The Bower in London, UK
December 7, 2019 at Hopscotch Reading Room in Berlin, Germany.
January 8, 2020 at BGSQD – Queer Division in New York City, NY.