trails by the highway just out of earshot of traffic
schools during breaks
those little beaches right next to ferry docks
bowling alleys
unfamiliar mcdonalds on long roadtrips
your friends living room once everybody but you is asleep
laundromats at midnight
• any target
• churches in texas
• abandoned 7/11’s
• your bedroom at 5 am
• hospitals at midnight
• warehouses that smell like dust
• lighthouses with lights that don’t work anymore
• empty parking lots
• ponds and lakes in suburban neighborhoods
• rooftops in the early morning
• inside a dark cabinet
galeries in art museums that are empty except for you
the lighting section of home depot
stairwells
•hospital waiting rooms
•airports from midnight to 7am
• bathrooms in small concert venues
I just got the weirdest feeling I swear
OK LISTEN THERE ARE REASONS FOR THIS!!!
A lot of these places are called liminalspaces – which means they are throughways from one space to the next. Places like rest stops, stairwells, trains, parking lots, waiting rooms, airports feel weird when you’re in them because their existence is not about themselves, but the things before and after them. They have no definitive place outside of their relationship to the spaces you are coming from and going to. Reality feels altered here because we’re not really supposed to be in them for a long time for think about them as their own entities, and when we do they seem odd and out of place.
The other spaces feel weird because our brains are hard-wired for context – we like things to belong to a certain place and time and when we experience those things outside of the context our brains have developed for them, our brains are like NOPE SHIT THIS ISN’T RIGHT GET OUT ABORT ABORT. Schools not in session, empty museums, being awake when other people are asleep – all these things and spaces feel weird because our brain is like “I already have a context for this space and this is not it so it must be dangerous.” Our rational understanding can sometimes override that immediate “danger” impulse but we’re still left with a feeling of wariness and unease.
Listen I am very passionate about liminal spaces they are fascinating stuff or perhaps I am merely a nerd.
I, for one, appreciate your passion for liminal spaces and thank you for explaining it to the rest of us.
Well, this is not a silly question at all! But if you’re hoping for a neutral, objective answer, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place, because I see Fëanorian references everywhere. The cloaks of the Rangers that they wear “pinned upon the left shoulder by a brooch of silver shaped like a rayed star” (The Passing of the Grey Company)? That’s clearly a very specific Fëanorian thing! You don’t wear your cloak pinned on the left shoulder unless you don’t really need your right hand (or are taking your fashion cues from someone who doesn’t). The Hall of Fire (Elrond)/ Heart of the House (Elros)? OBVIOUSLY the continuation of some sort of Fëanorian memorial fire cult! Etc.
As for Elrond’s banner, I couldn’t find the description of the flag you’re alluding to – I could only find “a banner of silver” when Elrond arrives at the end of The Steward and the King – but hey? The star may as well be for Eärendil, of course, we have no way of knowing that without further description – but the harp? Sure, totally Maglor, no question. 😀
In conclusion, I can’t give you an authoritative answer, but as least you’re not the only one interpreting “too much” into these things. Hope that helps!
OMG! I love this so much.
Another Day of the Dead entry from family photos! Thinking of the loss of my mother-in-law, the Mexican earthquake, and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting among other losses over the past year. But it is supposed to be a day less of grieving than to honor those who have passed and celebrate their lives.
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