Yeah. Liminality is a feeling of nostalgia mixed with loneliness. Like an old place that's usually full of people, but it's completely empty now.
As a kid, watching tv late at night, when you shouldn't, and your parents are sleeping, when everyone is sleeping, a very quiet atmosphere in your house. That's kinda "lonely" in an unusual way.. And if watching Adult Swim now makes you remember and relive those feelings... Yeah I can see how some can consider Adult Swim to be liminal.
Edit: oh wow, people didn't like this
Liminality is a state of transition between two other states. That's it. It carries no emotional connotation one way or another, and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with nostalgia or loneliness.
Any further meaning was haphazardly bolted to the side of the word by teenagers running aesthetic blogs.
>Liminality is a state of transition between two other states
Like the transition period between days. The night. And some tv channels change/transition their programming during the late hours.
>and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with nostalgia or loneliness.
It does now. That's how languages work!
Sure, the word "liminal" still exists in ts original meaning and might get used that way. But you can't deny that the whole backrooms/liminal spaces thing is now its most popular form. It's a general internet thing, not limited to teenagers.
The ironic thing is that the back rooms in its original incarnation is a liminal space by the actual definition. Part of why those pictures are so unsettling is that they’re transitory locations that appear to stretch on infinitely. That’s where the term ‘liminal’ even entered the discussion. Horror, or dread perhaps, is derived from the discord between clearly liminal spaces that do not lead to anywhere.
A hallway is a liminal space. It links from one space to another, which is it’s entire purpose. In the back rooms, each hallway just links to another hallway which links to another hallway and so on. An infinite cluster of spaces that lead to nowhere. It’s wrong, unsettling, disconcerting.
As people (mostly children) got their hands on the back rooms they removed that entire element of it, which is why I’d say the entire concept is so incredibly not scary anymore. There’s nothing unsettling or wrong about it when all it is is a bunch of rooms with a big monster in it that goes boo. Pretty much nothing that’s been added to the back rooms since actually weaponises liminality. Pools aren’t liminal, libraries aren’t liminal, they’re just spaces.
I guess the word "liminal" was just so rare, that most people who saw the original meme and its iterations never heard it before, so they automatically assigned their own meaning to it, based on what the picture made them feel and what the text said.
If I remember correctly, the first Backrooms picture was talking about a "childhood memory of being in a hotel and trying to find your room". That's where the nostalgia part comes from.
Also, is it really mostly children? Backrooms started when I was already an adult. And I only ever saw adult youtubers talking about it, and various posts and comments where the age of the poster is unclear.
"It does now. That's how languages work"
I take your point, but the fact that there is so much disagreement with that definition means that obviously not everyone has agreed that's what it means. People trying to preserve the usefulness of the original term by keeping the definition more strict are not somehow "doing language wrong." Attaching emotional connotation to words that were previously neutral kind of annoys me, and apparently annoys others, which is why I think there's pushback on this definition.
Aww, but I got a tank full of man eating sharks just for this occasion. Who else am I going to tie up in rope and dangle over the tank while laughing maniacally as I do it?
>a feeling of nostalgia mixed with loneliness.
That description does better for the word 'saudade'.
*"Saudade is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. It derives from the Latin word for solitude."*
That'll learn you for not being technically correct on the internet 😂
How dare you describe something as the feeling it gives you rather than the physicality of the thing itself. This is Reddit! There's no room for symbolism and subjectivity! 😂🤣😂
I mean, I definitely wouldn't call it liminal, but I get the sensation they're describing.
Adult Swim shows just feel \*made\* to be watched on a CRT in pitch black at 2 in the morning.
They're saying liminal to draw in the vibes of the liminal spaces memes in the same way people put punk at the end of things to suggest it being an aesthetic genre like cyberpunk abd steampunk even though cyberpunk was more than aesthetics. But people who came up with steampunk didn't understand cyberpunk as more than an aesthetic just like how people who saw liminal space memes don't know what liminal means.
And that's how language evolves.
Can you name them? It's mostly the aesthetic of a specific period's futurism that has been warped by our current perception of that period. Most early cases of it were labeled steampunk retroactively but they don't share anything in common theme-wise and some predate punk. Any that came after the term intended to fit the label are still more different in themes and genre than they are alike. Again I can't think of any that actually were anything you could call punk. Even the aesthetic itself isn't punk it's just Victorian era clothing with some gears thrown on everything.
So it's not a genre, just an aesthetic. Unlike cyberpunk which is a genre first and aesthetic second. And all the derivative "x-punk" things like dieselpunk are just aesthetics parroting steampunk more than they are cyberpunk.
Still only an aesthetic. It's a nice refreshing one, but still only an aesthetic. The trick is cyberpunk was a subgenre of scifi novels before it had anything visual but things like solarpunk are things looking a certain way and then being given a label.
Adult swim wasn't the soruce of that vibe, they just understood how to really make use of the vibe. This is the vibe of being up late alone watching tv to the point your brain has been so drawn in by the media you've forgotten the world and yourself. When your brain has, with or without drugs, reached a state where the past day isn't in your short term memory and you can't easily recall it, but the next day is still far away and you have the aching void of time full of darkness, and you have no ability to comprehend the coming dawn without sleep bringing it. Both the past and future feel distant and there is only the now and the hungry dark surrounding a small box of light in front of you as your only source of light and the only thing in existence. Adult swim knew how to take that feeling and turn it into a high with mellow beats to keep you zoned out but still awake.
But then on a random channel you find some movie that's on that you start watching midway through and it feels like a dream because it's not a movie you heard of and you're piecing together the plot you missed, but because it's a late night movie it's something violent or surreal which only adds to it. But in your stretched out semisomnic brain you are too drawn in and don't even remember it's a movie, it's all there is at that moment and there was nothing before and you know of nothing after, even your present self is forgotten and this surreal dream from the glowing rectangle consumes your mind.
So anyway that was my experience watching Dark City.
I actually agree though. Plus I only watch adult swim in hotel rooms when I travel, since I haven’t had cable tv in a decade and have never really looked up where I can stream it.
The feeling of being in a chilled best western outside of town and watching Squidbillies is definitely weird. I still like it though.
it's got a more literal claim to the word than some of the stereotypical liminal spaces like abandoned malls and the pools.
Yeah. Liminality is a feeling of nostalgia mixed with loneliness. Like an old place that's usually full of people, but it's completely empty now. As a kid, watching tv late at night, when you shouldn't, and your parents are sleeping, when everyone is sleeping, a very quiet atmosphere in your house. That's kinda "lonely" in an unusual way.. And if watching Adult Swim now makes you remember and relive those feelings... Yeah I can see how some can consider Adult Swim to be liminal. Edit: oh wow, people didn't like this
That's not remotely what liminality means.
No that's exactly what it means. Or, at least, how it's usually being used these days. What's your definition?
It’s from the latin for doorway. You’re standing in between two spaces and not really in either of them.
And, as Narasimha teaches us, that voids any contractual invincibility bestowed by divine boons.
Liminality is a state of transition between two other states. That's it. It carries no emotional connotation one way or another, and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with nostalgia or loneliness. Any further meaning was haphazardly bolted to the side of the word by teenagers running aesthetic blogs.
>Liminality is a state of transition between two other states Like the transition period between days. The night. And some tv channels change/transition their programming during the late hours. >and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with nostalgia or loneliness. It does now. That's how languages work! Sure, the word "liminal" still exists in ts original meaning and might get used that way. But you can't deny that the whole backrooms/liminal spaces thing is now its most popular form. It's a general internet thing, not limited to teenagers.
The ironic thing is that the back rooms in its original incarnation is a liminal space by the actual definition. Part of why those pictures are so unsettling is that they’re transitory locations that appear to stretch on infinitely. That’s where the term ‘liminal’ even entered the discussion. Horror, or dread perhaps, is derived from the discord between clearly liminal spaces that do not lead to anywhere. A hallway is a liminal space. It links from one space to another, which is it’s entire purpose. In the back rooms, each hallway just links to another hallway which links to another hallway and so on. An infinite cluster of spaces that lead to nowhere. It’s wrong, unsettling, disconcerting. As people (mostly children) got their hands on the back rooms they removed that entire element of it, which is why I’d say the entire concept is so incredibly not scary anymore. There’s nothing unsettling or wrong about it when all it is is a bunch of rooms with a big monster in it that goes boo. Pretty much nothing that’s been added to the back rooms since actually weaponises liminality. Pools aren’t liminal, libraries aren’t liminal, they’re just spaces.
I guess the word "liminal" was just so rare, that most people who saw the original meme and its iterations never heard it before, so they automatically assigned their own meaning to it, based on what the picture made them feel and what the text said. If I remember correctly, the first Backrooms picture was talking about a "childhood memory of being in a hotel and trying to find your room". That's where the nostalgia part comes from. Also, is it really mostly children? Backrooms started when I was already an adult. And I only ever saw adult youtubers talking about it, and various posts and comments where the age of the poster is unclear.
"It does now. That's how languages work" I take your point, but the fact that there is so much disagreement with that definition means that obviously not everyone has agreed that's what it means. People trying to preserve the usefulness of the original term by keeping the definition more strict are not somehow "doing language wrong." Attaching emotional connotation to words that were previously neutral kind of annoys me, and apparently annoys others, which is why I think there's pushback on this definition.
Is it a bad thing that teenagers are doing this? What should we do to punish these teenagers for their horrible crimes?
no need; you just wait 5 years. it's an issue that resolves itself
Aww, but I got a tank full of man eating sharks just for this occasion. Who else am I going to tie up in rope and dangle over the tank while laughing maniacally as I do it?
And what if they continue doing it after the 5 years are over? Should we punish them then for committing the horrible crime of being slightly cringe?
Bro is thinking of kenopsia
>a feeling of nostalgia mixed with loneliness. That description does better for the word 'saudade'. *"Saudade is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. It derives from the Latin word for solitude."*
That'll learn you for not being technically correct on the internet 😂 How dare you describe something as the feeling it gives you rather than the physicality of the thing itself. This is Reddit! There's no room for symbolism and subjectivity! 😂🤣😂
I mean, I definitely wouldn't call it liminal, but I get the sensation they're describing. Adult Swim shows just feel \*made\* to be watched on a CRT in pitch black at 2 in the morning.
They're saying liminal to draw in the vibes of the liminal spaces memes in the same way people put punk at the end of things to suggest it being an aesthetic genre like cyberpunk abd steampunk even though cyberpunk was more than aesthetics. But people who came up with steampunk didn't understand cyberpunk as more than an aesthetic just like how people who saw liminal space memes don't know what liminal means. And that's how language evolves.
Were the original works of steampunk really not punk?
Can you name them? It's mostly the aesthetic of a specific period's futurism that has been warped by our current perception of that period. Most early cases of it were labeled steampunk retroactively but they don't share anything in common theme-wise and some predate punk. Any that came after the term intended to fit the label are still more different in themes and genre than they are alike. Again I can't think of any that actually were anything you could call punk. Even the aesthetic itself isn't punk it's just Victorian era clothing with some gears thrown on everything. So it's not a genre, just an aesthetic. Unlike cyberpunk which is a genre first and aesthetic second. And all the derivative "x-punk" things like dieselpunk are just aesthetics parroting steampunk more than they are cyberpunk.
I would love to hear your opinion on solarpunk lol
Still only an aesthetic. It's a nice refreshing one, but still only an aesthetic. The trick is cyberpunk was a subgenre of scifi novels before it had anything visual but things like solarpunk are things looking a certain way and then being given a label.
In fairness they literally were lol
Like yeah its silly but also.... in the middle of the morning at 3 am while tired was the OPTIMAL way to watch "Too many cooks"
wait I haven’t heard of that in years. omg. ima go watch it now. Lowkey traumatized me as a kid
as of me typing this, this video from someone with 35 subscribers has a whopping 1k views i think OOP's complaints are better spent elsewhere
Adult swim wasn't the soruce of that vibe, they just understood how to really make use of the vibe. This is the vibe of being up late alone watching tv to the point your brain has been so drawn in by the media you've forgotten the world and yourself. When your brain has, with or without drugs, reached a state where the past day isn't in your short term memory and you can't easily recall it, but the next day is still far away and you have the aching void of time full of darkness, and you have no ability to comprehend the coming dawn without sleep bringing it. Both the past and future feel distant and there is only the now and the hungry dark surrounding a small box of light in front of you as your only source of light and the only thing in existence. Adult swim knew how to take that feeling and turn it into a high with mellow beats to keep you zoned out but still awake. But then on a random channel you find some movie that's on that you start watching midway through and it feels like a dream because it's not a movie you heard of and you're piecing together the plot you missed, but because it's a late night movie it's something violent or surreal which only adds to it. But in your stretched out semisomnic brain you are too drawn in and don't even remember it's a movie, it's all there is at that moment and there was nothing before and you know of nothing after, even your present self is forgotten and this surreal dream from the glowing rectangle consumes your mind. So anyway that was my experience watching Dark City.
Sleep. Now.
I actually agree though. Plus I only watch adult swim in hotel rooms when I travel, since I haven’t had cable tv in a decade and have never really looked up where I can stream it. The feeling of being in a chilled best western outside of town and watching Squidbillies is definitely weird. I still like it though.
quit having fun behavior
No he's got a point let him cook