It reminds me of the forest passage concept described by Ernst Jünger. He was writing about sovereignty within one's own consciousness and I'm not referencing

It reminds me of the forest passage concept described by Ernst Jünger. He was writing about sovereignty within one's own consciousness and I'm not referencing this particular context in this case (although they probably are related) but more generally how "the hinterlands" provide a place away from the beam of focus that a society maintains. Almost by definition these places feel forgotten but once you get over the unnerving sense of separation and isolation from everything, your imagination seems to recover some of its creativity. That creativity then fills in the gaps visually to create an aesthetically pleasing setting even if it didn't feel that way at first.