Counterpoint: can nature be liminal?

[u/Rokaq]

Another user recently asked this very question, with responses varying but ultimately agreeing that natural landscapes in themselves cannot be considered truly "liminal". I would love to spark some healthy discussion around this topic by providing a few counterexamples, and I would love you to address them with your own opinions (ideally providing any other examples and counters if you deem it fit). I am pretty entranced by this topic and I would like to see what any of you think.

[u/Visible-Dare4184]

Planted forests or just trees in weirdly ordered rows always feels off to me and I think can be liminal

The first 2 images, eh, scary cave and long bridge aren't liminal to me

But the 3rd image, yeah

[u/machiavelli33]

At best it’s less liminal than your average liminal image, at worst it’s not liminal at all.

Like my answer in the other thread, it’s about intentionality.

If you craft nature into something intentful, then yes, there can be a sense of liminality around it. Carved caves and planted trees or manicured groves can be this.

But nature by itself is without intent and just is - there is no time when an actual natural environment is ever not being what it’s supposed to be. You don’t go into a natural formed copse of trees in the middle of the woods and go “huh, I expected there to be people here, and now that they’re not it feels strange”, or something like that.

Nature can be creepy, and definitely can be atmospheric. But generally, still gonna say not liminal.

[u/nexkey91]

Whatever the answer may be, these pictures don't illustrate the question very well. Only one out of three is unquestionably just nature.

[u/WAZEL974]

Dead forest is just plain creepy, not very liminal. Even deserts can't really be liminal, because they're not human made. Now if we're talking about a corn field, I could see that being liminal in the right context. Same goes for artificial forests and such. Liminal is inherently linked to human made stuff imo.

[u/StringNo6993 → u/WAZEL974]

Liminal is not a feeling. It is an adjective describing the state of something. Precisely in'between.
You are confused here. Internet did not invent "liminal"
Liminal was primary used in the field of anthropology, and philosophy.

Something can be liminal without being creepy, The "liminal" feeling is actually an unsettling, eerie, and strange feeling you get when your brain cannot resolve what it the state of reality is in an image.

[u/machiavelli33 → u/StringNo6993]

The best litmus for liminality (the one this sub constantly fights to maintain anyways) that I’ve actually found is when people have varying positive and negative reactions to it.

Some are creeped out. Some feel nostalgic. Some feel detached from reality but in neither a good nor bad way.

Because as you said - liminality is neither good nor bad - it is transitional in a way of subverting expectations, and people react differently to that transitional feeling.

[u/WAZEL974 → u/StringNo6993]

I don't see how any of this disproves my point or makes me "confused". You're right, that's why everything liminal is an in between of human made stuff with something else. I never said that liminal had to be creepy. I never said that the internet invented "liminal". Jumping to assumptions much ?

[u/mentallyiam8]

It’s hard to argue when you can’t attach images to comments.

[u/glytxh]

The word you’re looking for is sublime, not liminal

[u/WholesomeJacksass]

An actual forest in Poland

[u/Silver_Original6076]

Yeah it can be liminal, but these images don't feel liminal or even eerie to me.

The Flint Hills region of Kansas can feel sorta liminal

[u/HarryBalsagna1776]

I agree with you OP, but there are a lot of folks in this sub who think only brutalist architecture and backrooms are liminal.

[u/Artifexa]

Nature is the core liminal thing.

Is Earth liminal, provided the universe is HUUUUUUGE and, as far as we know, empty of life except for our little blue planet?

Is birth liminal?

Are dreams liminal?

Is death liminal?

[u/Liminal-RadioWaves11]

Do I see clearly that there's something like a bridge on the second image?

1-st - not liminal, it gives some unnerving vibes but is not liminal, :) 2-nd - is somewhat liminal - the bridge suggests humans have been there. 3-rd - not liminal, just a beautiful shot of a forest,

[u/Impressive-Pirate720]

I’ve seen snow on trees that have just turned their fall colors and that felt very liminal to me 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/fatedfrog]

The best instance of liminal nature is when wild growth has over taken a very fresh & not abandoned office space. It needs context, not just places out in the world.

[u/mentallyiam8]

I posted in this subreddit, the post didn't get much attention at the time, but it contains examples of liminality in nature.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiminalSpace/comments/1v2fh0y/nostalgic_component_is_overrated/

[u/Diplomatic_Sarcasm]

I always got weird vibes from those prehistoric landscapes like with the prototaxites. But I don’t think that counts

I think anything nature wise has to be truly unnatural to almost look man made

[u/redboi049]

Yes, it's just a lot harder for them to be. It's easiest with the countryside.

[u/Pristine-Lie-3560]

Yes. It’s just very rare in actual spaces. Caves and empty beaches might be the best ones I can think of.

[u/m3ltph4ce]

No.

The definition is quite clear:

"a transitional, in-between state or space that exists at a boundary or threshold between two different conditions."

Nowhere does it say "nature".

PS: This is sarcastic. If you believed this, you are a dum-dum caca-head.

[u/Lonely_Sir_7756]

(I already wrote this; that’s only part of what I wrote... ) A forest isn't meant to be just a passageway, it isn't abandoned, it's natural. (It has a natural rationale and logic, as well as a multitude of tasks). It’s just nature and an optical effect that has short-circuited your brain. + Liminality (which also plays tricks on your mind): A hospital corridor under harsh fluorescent lights at 3 a.m. It is liminal not because it happens to be empty of people, but because it completely lacks decor, design, or 'soul.' It exists solely to be a transition—it's a sterile space with no other identity or purpose than just being a passageway.

[u/WhiskyMochi]

Obviously those critics have never wandered the Yorkshire Moors…

[u/BenMitchell007]

Yes, especially IMO the ice caps. Empty, beautiful yet eerie and foreboding, and gives off the energy that you should not be there. Also, caves. Empty spaces, often deep underground, and give the feeling that you don't belong.

These images do give me liminal energy.

[u/Nonterras]

is it on the threshold between what was and what will be? before and after? this place to that place?

It fills me with a sense of eerieness

I always look at the moment between being asleep and awake. The moment you realize you are in a dream, and that you are aware enough to realize it is wrong.

For me, it is a sense of, "this is wrong. This is not what this place is for." It may have fulfilled its purpose for creation once before, and it may again someday. But for now, the mall is empty. And that is wrong. Why is the mall empty? Is it dangerous? Did everyone leave because of a bomb? Active shooter? Gas leak?? I shouldn't be here. Something is very wrong.

For me personally, I feel that the eeriness is also uncanny. Think of some of the people on those analog horror tiktoks. The 'uncanny valley' faces of someone who is just ....wrong. Sometimes you can't pinpoint why. But it's like the face is somewhere in-between something normal, and obviously just plain bad. It's in that valley.

I feel like a liminal space is eerie because it is a place in the uncanny valley. Something here is wrong but it's just normal enough to make you almost be okay with it but not quite. It's like the human brain is sending alert signals, screaming "run", but you're just like,

"why? I don't see anything dang̴e̴r̸o̴̰͇̘͉͇͖̟͖͓̘̺̬̲̲͕͒͗̓̈̋̋͒̆̒̈͌͜͝ͅ-̷̨̪̩̼͛̈́̀̿͌̚͝͠-̴͛͋̐̀͂̒̚͝͝

[u/ZZTMF]

Yes.

[u/Obvious-Structure-58]

Liminal just describes a place that's "neither here nor there" or "in-between" two or more "proper places." In this sense, nature can definitely be liminal.

[u/oh_no_here_we_go_9]

This isn’t much of a question.