Published by redelsteiner dahimène edition in Vienna, “Binge Living – Callcenter-Monologe” collects recordings made by Stefanie Sargnagel, an art student studying with Daniel Richter, who also works as a call center agent. It was a surprise best seller in Austria during the Christmas season of 2013.
Besides Facebook entries such as “Ich bin eine tolle Künstlerin” (“I am a great artist; July 3, 2011) or “Ich will nicht Künstlerin werden” (“I don’t want to be an artist; November 5, 2011), the author presents modern humanity with peppery nonchalance, of the kind that is sometimes considered to be particularly dark and sassy in Vienna. Sargnagel occasionally reacts with a keen sense of humor to a real phenomenon, described by Diedrich Diederichsen in “On Pop Music” as follows: “Whether one completely separates one’s personal self-image from one’s McJob, or adjusts one’s professional image to artistic and trending romantic ideas of one’s life and one’s self-realization, both sides have given up on the notion that the process of forming the self is finished at some point, and that profession and person are two complementary components of this finalized self.”

On this evening, Stefanie Sargnagel will read from her celebrated debut novel, Binge Living – the Call Center Monologues, as well as from her e-book, “In der Zukunft sind wir alle tot” (In the future, we are all dead).