Liminal Spaces and The Backrooms are kind of spooky.
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Sources:
https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Liminal_Space
(i know generally .fandoms arnt the most reliable resource, but it has a pretty good break down of what liminality “is”)
Everything Must Go: Visiting the Last Blockbuster Video Stores:
http://airshipdaily.com/blog/01092014-last-blockbuster-video-stores
Andrews, Hazel; Roberts, Les (2015). “Liminality”. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. pp. 131–137. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.12102-6. ISBN 978-0-08-097087-5.
Taheri, Babak; Gori, Keith; O’Gorman, Kevin; Hogg, Gillian; Farrington, Thomas (2 January 2016). “Experiential liminoid consumption: the case of nightclubbing”
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-impact-of-liminal-space-on-your-mental-health-5204371
https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/general/understanding-how-liminal-space-is-different-from-other-places/
https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/what-is-liminal-space/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494422000895?via%3Dihub
https://sabukaru.online/articles/liminal-spaces-the-era-of-realizing-false-promises
https://www.zacharyfruhling.com/philosophy-blog/liminal-spaces-and-liminal-jobs-the-spaces-between-spaces-and-the-jobs-between-jobs
https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/11/1/the-cult-following-of-liminal-space
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0018726714536938
https://www.boredpanda.com/liminal-spaces/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-pleasant-head-trip-of-liminal-spaces
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/outsiders/files/2015/01/Victor-Turner-Betwixt-and-Between.pdf
24 Comments
Hello.
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I’m just now remembering that these dream pools are exactly what my earliest dreams were like. I liked swimming and was fascinated with the look of inclosed swimming pools
You would probably love to visit a James Turrel retrospective.
"Places don't get to choose how they're remembered, they just hang out and fall apart."
– Night in the Woods (2017)
great video! i love the conclusion, although i think it's better if we just be… all the time
The best example I read of liminal horror are the books I Am Behind You and I Always Find You by John Linquivist (author of let the right one in). They're loosely connected and can be read alone or together. The first one is about a caravan park that gets transported to an endless perfectly green field overnight. Theres no sun but the sky is always blue, the grass is perfectly uniform, the same song plays on the radio. It seems to go on forever, with no escape, as the characters are forced to confront the things they've suppressed manifesting. The second book is about a young man, moving to the city for the first time who encounters a mysterious substance in his flats bathroom being used as a drug by the buildings tenants. As he starts to use it, he gets temporarily transported to the same void like field, while in between "trips" the real world seems to break down subtly, a sense of unease soaking into everything. It's a perfect example of the subtle dread and unreality and in-betweeness of liminal horror.
the old abandoned dark liminal spaces with no way how to leave the room/space scare me to no end. they are so creepy in their familiarity, as if asking you to let your guard down.
though those spaces that have light, no pitch black corners and generally the feeling of being sheltered but not trapped, those are deeply comforting.
the location at 5:50 is something I recognize as a potential room in a massive castle, the well room, where all the rainwater is collected and can be used by the castle staff. In fact you'd build it exactly like this, just, without the modern tiling. Obviously nobody would build it this way today, to avoid contaminating the water, but they didn't exactly know what does or doesn't contaminate water back then did they?
I lived in Donegal for two years, the overbearing catholic nature of society lead to not a great Halloween sprit. In-fact only 15 years ago A nun walked into a primary school and told me if people sinned less there would be fewer natural disasters. Not exactly Jesus friendly conduct from the clergy. But that's what you get when you put church's and schools together (they were right next door) we'd go to church regularly… at Public school…. it's wild ya'll.
So yeah, what's Halloween like again? Because I think It's kind of shite compared to American kids Halloween at least from my own experiences.
What’s funny is I instantly recognised where the opening shots were taken for this video. So combined with the narrative it’s just surreal. Really is an empty road built and barely ever used.
This must be why Leyland kirby’s The caretaker and other depictions of dementia have become involved with liminal horror. They both represent perceiving something impossible
I tried describing the feeling of liminality, and it is tough task if you want to be concise and precise, even if the definition only applies accurately to you and at best only partially or tolerably, adequately well for others – or not at all.
So, for me:
1: Liminality is cognitive dissonance applied to visual stimuli (e.g. a picture of a place clearly built with human-built features but that no human frequent or could possibly builf, use, or go to. Like a 50 square mile – fully-furnished and technically operational – diner; or a stairwell with 300,000 steps that are 2 inches tall and leads to a plain ceiling.
2: Liminality is akin to false memories that you KNOW are false, and for which the only exterior stimuli isn't someone implanting the memory (as usually happens), but the image's mere presence pointing it out. You do the recalling, all the while knowing the object that you do recognise is not the one with which you are actually familiar.
3: Liminality forces an encounter with the actual archetype of a thing or concept, more than with an extant instance of said thing or concept. Uncanniness serves in creatiing the effect, because of course what's shown is also a real instance — it's not just theoretical, but it's easier to get confused if an object is uncannily unusable, a place eerily deserted, a New England landscape suspiciously unterran (*)…
See? I wanted to be concise and even though I managed to express what I feel liminality is, it took fucking three paragraphs. And all three attempts are valid for me, it isn't that one is better and the other two are then discardable…
Shit, I think I no-clipped through reality and fell into the metaphysical-psycholinguistic Backrooms – AGAIN…!
(*) That's the Earthican equivalent of "unamerican". And no, the word doesn't exist. And yes, it does now.
I too like many people in these comments find peace entering a room or walking around an open space that's just completely empty. People and cars and life in general when I'm out and about gives me SUCH anxiety and for the life of me i do not know why. I guess its just one of the possible quirks of an anxiety disorder huh
The ultimate goal of the Backrooms is to literally find, meet and confront yourself, in person.
I somehow immediately recognized that exact road from the intro even though I've last been there like 10 years ago. Which somehow made watching the intro even more creepy.
Thank you for these videos. Your videos calm my anxiety. I think it's because of how open and sensitive you are . I love you man
Thank you for introducing me to more backrooms found footage videos other than the Kane Pixels one. I was hungry for more.
About time we see some Matrix Reloaded love in the world!
more lately, in any case.
The Dream Pools are, for me, the hieght of exactly what you talk about with liminal spaces. Swimming is one of my favorite things, and the idea of being able to float peacefully as long as I want in those spaces is appealing, while also the idea of an endless space of water also invokes a lot of fear. Absolutely superb video, hope you're doing well!
The thing that always makes me sad about House of Leaves is that I'll never be able to read it the same way that I did the first time. At the beginning I wasn't sure if I was really into it and read in fits and starts but at some point it just grabbed me and and I read the last 2/3 of it in one sitting, just letting the story and typesetting kinda flow over me. I stopped experiencing 'myself reading words that tell a story' and started experiencing the story in a more direct way somehow. (I was probably really tired, but I think that helped)
I honestly feel a sublime comfort in these images and actual places. I used to do security for a run down metal plant. it was 2 square miles filled with rooms that Tesla would have called home to machine shops to office buildings and even a morgue form WWII when it made Tanks. I worked there for 5 years and I could have been there 5 more and not seen all the rooms. I used to walk for a couple hours and then hide for a while and then return to exploring. all alone for miles and miles. True freedom…
My college years was filled with luminal spaces. My campus had a lot of underground corridors and bridges, and I had managed to learn to navigate them all in an attempt to avoid going outside during the winter. My friends followed me to try the route across campus and it literally confused and frightened them.
I had to stop watching at 37 minutes when you mentioned House of leaves.
It's currently sitting on my bed side table waiting for me to finish The Handmaiden's tale.
Didn't want spoilers!
Good video regardless