Thanks to a recent gift, Writers Bloc is offering this event FREE to the public.
Reserve directly by emailing us at reservations@writersblocpresents.com.
November 14, 2013. 7:30pm. At the Goethe-Institut, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90036. Ample free street parking, as well as parking under the building with validation $1 after 6:00pm.
What happens when you put a cartoonist with The New Yorker in the same room for too long with a young humorist? A parody of a sex manual is what happens, of course. See hilarious excerpts here.
Writers Bloc is, you know, an elite and proud literary series, dedicated to bringing to the reading public of Los Angeles the finest writers, artists and thinkers. We have been known to venture into silly territory occasionally, but we have drawn the line at sex manuals. Sex manuals are not considered literature, we have sniffed over the years. But we can admit when we’re wrong. And we gleefully admit that The Married Kama Sutra: The World’s Least Erotic Sex Manual is terrific literature. Okay, so maybe it’s not terrific Literature with a capital L. But it is pretty damn funny. It is, in our humble estimation, the perfect marriage of good natured satire and wonderful parody.
Simon Rich is a humorist, short story writer and the youngest writer ever hired by Saturday Night Live. He has published several volumes of humorous short stories, and regularly contributes to the Shouts and Murmurs page of The New Yorker. Award-nominated short story collections are surely impressive, but that’s not what interests us at the moment. It’s The Married Kama Sutra: The World’s Least Erotic Sex Manual, full of thoughtful illustrations and observations about common positions of married couples who have hung around together longer than a few years. There’s “the dishwasher position” (hint: he’s only trying to help) and then there’s the “shoving of the warthog” (hint: it involves the snoring male), and one of our favorites, “a terrible position” (hint: Does this make me look fat? Be honest!). Literature with a capital L to be sure.
Farley Katz, the illustrator, has a day job as a staff cartoonist at The New Yorker. His illustrations, therefore, capture the moment and are pretty terrific.
—
Simon Rich is the author of Free-Range Chickens, Ant Farm, Elliot Allagash, What in God’s Name, and The Last Girlfriend on Earth. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and the Believer. He lives in San Francisco, where he is a staff writer at Pixar.