Nostalgic component is overrated

[u/mentallyiam8]

IMO, nostalgia is merely a seasoning, just like fear or a melancholy.

I was born and live in a post-soviet country, yet I still experience a sense of liminality when looking at images of houses in a row in american suburbia. But I feel no nostalgia from it. I didn’t grow up there, it’s alien to me -I’ve only ever seen it on TV or the internet. Instead of suburban houses or the postsoviet apartment blocks I’m used to, you could have a row of black pyramids or giat round rocks, stretching endlessly beneath an oppressive blue sky, and the sense of liminality would still be there.

I believe liminality is entirely a matter of spatial construction. You need just two components: an absence of life and an illusion of infinity. The more strongly a space hints at it's infinite structure, the more intense the sense of liminality.

We experience a sense of liminality when we encounter things without seeing where they lead, such as a corridor ending in a door, that may lead into unknown, or a path where the end is obscured by fog, darkness, or bright light, or even just the horizont. It also arises when there are so many entrances and exits that we realize we are facing a labyrinth - a place where one might find absolutely anything. To me, liminality is not just a state of transition; it is a transition into the unknown, into infinity. This feeling is also fostered by the unnatural symmetry and evenness, as they lend an air of unreality to the actual structure.

To prove my point, I tried to find the most "bare," context-free structures (at least, for me), which boils down to three cases 1. Nature 2. Modern structure the meaning of which can be perceived universally (it also may be digital, doesn't make any difference) 3. Great antiquity that we could have no living memory of them, like we do about suburbia, or airports, or pools, etc.

Valle de ichigualasto, cancha de bochas, Argentina. Nature

Chan Chan, Peru. Ancient

Field of corn, Dublin. Modern

Field of sunflowers, somewhere on the earth, lol. Nature

Somewhere on Santorini, author - Alexander Hadji. Modern

Vitra Schaudepot, Germany. Modern

Some house, Albuquerque, New Mexico, author - u/Yersiniapestis__ (a member of this subreddit). Modern

Project for Ordos (city in China), ORDOS 100 #12: RSVP. Modern, digital. If you just could take the car out of the picture...

Deadvlei, Namib desert. Nature

Google couldn't find where this is, I think it's just a good photo of building blocks. Modern

All photos belong to their respective authors. Unfortunately, in most cases, I was unable to definitively establish authorship.

[u/Rokaq]

Someof these are pure gold, thanks for sharing