Fret not, frot not, HELLO, WORLD? is a forget me not fiction of fetishism, femdom and fantasy.
In Anna Poletti’s text, the protagonist’s name is Seasonal, a nomenclature that conjures recurrent, sporadic and periodical and in structure and tone, this tome mimics that state.
After living in the Netherlands for two years and then abandoned by their Dutch partner, Seasonal finds themself single in a strange place for the first time in a decade. Still adjusting to life outside Australia, they turn to the internet to find a new world to explore and inhabit.
Digging into the rabbit hole of digital eroticism, a warren of wanton desire, Seasonal meets László, a male sub who volleys back their cerebral sexts in search of a dominant guide.
Dildo bingo in cunning lingo, Seasonal and László embark on an experiment in remaking intimacy outside the Republic of Gender, the confederacy of fluidity, a terra firma of undulating foothold.
Both Seasonal and László share a desire to get off the needle of not being good enough.
László, Hungarian hungry for humiliation and Seasonal, Australian separatist, improvise a theatre of domination in search of freedom, a contradiction in terms or proof positive of the sado masochistic pattern of hetero normative relationships.
Sexuality stalks the pages of hello, world?, in a narrative that edges its frets, where two people try to unlearn everything they think they know about intimacy.
“And there is the trust, the exposure, the extremely delicate balance of respect that makes pain a tool for learning and not for punishment. Seasonal has no understanding of how they have managed to build this with László so quickly; but tey are reassured when they look at him across the white expanse of their too-big bed and see the awe they feel is mirrored in his face”
hello, world? By Anna Poletti is published by Puncher & Wattmann
