This new book is “adults only” — but its content is decidedly PG-13.
An author-illustrator duo are celebrating the release of their new book, “The Married Kama Sutra,” at BookCourt on Nov. 4, where they’ll discuss their toned-down spoof of the ancient Hindu sex manual and the positions described within, which they say anyone can accomplish without much trouble — mostly because none of them involve actual coitus.
“I think a lot of the positions of the ‘Kama Sutra’ set the bar a little too high,” said the author of “The Married Kama Sutra” and Cobble Hill resident, Simon Rich. “We’re attempting to write a more realistic update.”
To that end, Rich, along with his long-time friend and illustrator Farley Katz, have adapted the spirit of the original tome — an illustrated guide for couples with evocatively-titled positions such as “the rest of the warrior” and “the union of the elephant” — and applied it to a tongue-in-cheek look at the less-sexy realities of modern marriage.
So where the original “Kama Sutra” might advocate an anatomically improbable bedroom technique, “The Married Kama Sutra” settles for a more hands-off activity, such as: “When a man passes gas in front of the woman, without so much as an apology, it is called ‘the shifting of the standards.’”
“The positions in ‘The Married Kama Sutra’ are very attainable,” said Katz.
In fact, the closest the book ever comes to actual love-making is when its long-suffering illustrated couple enters into the intimate realm of the bathroom shower with romantic intentions, but their plan backfires when they actually look at one another.
“They go in to take an erotic shower, but after looking at each other, it quickly degenerates into just a regular shower,” Rich explained.
After dozens of collaborations, the pair said “The Married Kama Sutra” is their tamest work to date. Although both Rich and Katz are independently successful in their respective professions, this new book is the only joint effort in a decade-long partnership that the New Yorker — the only publication they’ve submitted to — has deemed appropriate for publication.
“Most of our early efforts were too obscene,” said Rich, describing the previous work he and Katz submitted to the magazine. “But ‘The Married Kama Sutra’ is sort of the opposite of obscene.:
“Once we started putting clothes on people,” Katz added, “we started getting accepted more.”
Meet the creators of “The Married Kama Sutra” at BookCourt [163 Court St. between Pacific and Dean streets in Cobble Hill, (718) 875-3677, www.bookcourt.com] Nov. 4, 7 pm.
