hello, world? (Semiotext

by Anna Poletti

A feminist paean to on remaking intimacy outside the Republic of Gender.Seasonal begins writing sentences and thinking thoughts they never thought possible. They want to give László the pleasure of being nothing. The more they come to like him, to value his sensitivity, his sharp mind, his aesthetics, his ethics, and the more they want his respect, the easier it seems to become to think about destroying him. A new set of capacities which they had only dimly sensed are now coursing in their muscles, their cunt, their blood, their mind.Abandoned by their Dutch partner after giving up their home and their job to follow him to the Netherlands, humanities scholar Seasonal finds themself single in a strange place for the first time in a decade.  Dipping into the rabbit hole of digital eroticism, Seasonal soon meets László, a male sub who volleys back their cerebral sexts and is seeking a dominant guide. His dating-app profile—a photo of Foucault and the ingenuous greeting “Hello, World?”—thinly veils his desire to be annihilated. It’s a desire that Seasonal senses they can fulfill. But to do this means crossing the frightening gap between their desires and capacities.   Seasonal and László embark on an experiment in remaking intimacy outside the Republic of Gender. But as it continues, the two realize they are staging separate confrontations with Seasonal finds they must confront their own relation to the violence and anger that marked their upbringing in working-class, small-town Australia, while László stages his own confrontation with his decision to leave Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. As they attempt to improvise a theater of domination that opens up possibilities of reciprocity, the energies of their sexuality stalk this collaboration, threatening to give them exactly what they bargained or begged for. A feminist paean to perversity in the tradition of Pauline Réage’s Story of O and Anaïs Nin’s Delta of Venus, Anna Poletti’s hello, world? dares to fully inhabit female power, and to fully face the violence, beauty, and uncharted territories of human sexuality.

Genres: Fiction

376 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Marijonas Verbel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rated "4" at first but then caught myself constantly thinking how the story was unfolding (especially from the middle of the book) and then reaching the end, making me realise that it's probably a "5"

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I liked it? Literally everything in the world is made up. Don’t forget.

[Martyna · Rating 4 out of 5]

ksiażka eksplorująca patriarchat, politykę ciał, queerowość, performatywność płci i niebinarność w kontekście relacji D/s. myślę, że w książce brakowało trochę kontekstu dysforii, który był jedynie pobieżnie i nie wprost wspomniany, a dla cispłciowego czytelnika mógłby wiele wnieść.

[Zoe Janavice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Say yes to the rise of the femdom. Excellent 🙂‍↕️

[Hannah Harper-Ruff · Rating 3 out of 5]

wanted more regarding the mc being non binary but learned a lot about d/s. i wasn’t really going for that…but interesting nonetheless?

[Blake Tiemeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A non-binary narrator’s foray into the BDSM world ultimately asks the reader to question how the patriarchy molds our desires, boundaries, and negotiations of control.

What makes this book so compelling is its refusal to offer easy conclusions. Instead, it asks: When we step into the bedroom, are we ever truly leaving behind the societal structures that dictate power? How do we untangle personal agency from the scripts we’ve absorbed about dominance, submission, and gendered expectation?

The narrator’s non-binary perspective allows for a refreshingly destabilizing lens, forcing readers to interrogate assumptions about who wields power and why.

Yes, the book contains graphic content—how could it not? But the real tension here isn’t in the kink itself; it’s in the questions it forces us to confront about sex, identity, and the systems that shape us.

As a queer person, I would have personally enjoyed learning more about Seasonal’s non-binary identity & thought the addition of a third, male character into their encounters with Laszlo would have added an interesting angle to explore the questions about gender & power exchanges further.

[Jack Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

adored thoroughly. sometimes frustrated with how unquestionable seasonal’s motives and thoughts were throughout the book particularly in how the form blocked out other potential voices except my own. infallibility of the narrator or whatever. good good. i will certainly read what comes next if something comes next but yeah really wish it would go further sometimes with the theory unabashedly woven closer to the sex and not parallel to it in after thought but yes sex can overwrite/dent language but yes this is also a book.

[Michael Datz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hm, not sure how much I can say about this book. A very dark exploration of sexuality and femininity (and as a byproduct, masculinity) in our current times. How we are as people, as creatures of intimacy, and how we are shaped by our environment. Some pretty extreme content here to explore those ideas, mostly d/s.

Didn’t know Semiotext(e) as a publisher, and though I can say I am not the intended audience for this book at all, I’m interested in more of what they publish.

[Lylia · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating and thought provoking exploration of power, gender, and sexuality

[Juli Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little book. Poetic and immersive. Not super memorable or profound, but nice.

[Max Moses · Rating 5 out of 5]

didn’t think i’d finish this so fast, but it sucked me in. it’s a beautiful exploration.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to go to Europe

[Aaron Jackman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was devastatingly erotic. I melted. I marveled at the architecture of every page. The characters were people I could actually relate to…they felt so familiar. Pain. Pleasure.