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The playground was the most glaring example that I can recall without going back. Children go into playgrounds and stay there for a period of time. Parents go t

by jtode 3y ago

The playground was the most glaring example that I can recall without going back. Children go into playgrounds and stay there for a period of time. Parents go there and stay to watch there children. It is a space in which people stay and do activity. It is not a space people pass through. The time-based thing is not without merit, but it's going to apply to metaphysical spaces; puberty and menopause, for instance, are brief periods of time that all people or half the people occupy for a short while in transition from one phase to another. The playground is a permanent space that everyone occupies at all times of their lives, on and off (grandparents, teachers, etc) and is not transitional, other than the transition from boredom to amusement perhaps, but you're really stretching if that's your thesis. I'm sorry if I'm coming off overly critical but this is a personal bugbear of mine. The concept is getting buried in a torrent of abusive barbarisms. We learned when I was studying English at uni that liminal characters are generally disliked, because they are unsettling in their inability to occupy any space properly, while simultaneously being a complete whole with life and agency.

keiferski 3y ago
Yeah, I’m pretty certain you didn’t read the article very closely, because the suggested reading time by Substack is 17 minutes and you commented on the article 10 minutes after I posted it. If you had read the article and engaged with it, you would have seen this part: Thinking about it more, I think we can divide liminal spaces into two broad types: Architectural liminal spaces, in which we are physically moving from one place to another. They include hallways, airports, roads, and other places we occupy temporarily while we are en route to a more important destination. As such, movement-based liminal spaces are defined primarily by built structures in our environment. Time and Status liminal spaces. These can be considered two subcategories of the same general idea: spaces where liminal life moments occur. They are defined less by the physical layout of our environment and more by events in our lives. Time-based liminal spaces, which we occupy for a period of our lives while transitioning to a new stage of life. The transition from childhood is a common example: playgrounds, classrooms, toy stores, and arcades are spaces we occupy during the process of moving from child to adult. Status-based liminal spaces, which we occupy while undergoing a change in social status. For example, a church during a marriage, in which participants enter legally single, perform a ceremony, and leave married. Or, in army boot camp, where participants enter as recruits, undergo intense training, and leave as soldiers. This is the only place I mention playgrounds, as a part of theorizing (“I think”) that liminal spaces can be considered metaphorically as well. That’s what people do in essays: they think out loud, they speculate. Especially about very slippery concepts like liminality. I argue that they are liminal spaces because yes, they are not destinations in the broader picture of our lives. They are steps in the process of growing up. From the perspective of an adult, the playground is a space representing the time before a major change - being an adult. That is pretty much textbook liminality. These are hardly “examples of extremely non liminal spaces,” as you claim. This is probably also why playgrounds and malls are so often used as examples of liminal spaces online. I discussed this later in the article, which I assume you didn’t read. Next time, maybe try reading the article and thinking about it for at least a minute before jumping in for a quick middlebrow dismissal? https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/gpcl89/middlebrow_dismissals_paul_graham/?rdt=46140 https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/gpcl89/midd... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726248

by jtode 3y ago

keiferski 3y ago

Yeah, I’m pretty certain you didn’t read the article very closely, because the suggested reading time by Substack is 17 minutes and you commented on the article 10 minutes after I posted it. If you had read the article and engaged with it, you would have seen this part: Thinking about it more, I think we can divide liminal spaces into two broad types: Architectural liminal spaces, in which we are physically moving from one place to another. They include hallways, airports, roads, and other places we occupy temporarily while we are en route to a more important destination. As such, movement-based liminal spaces are defined primarily by built structures in our environment. Time and Status liminal spaces. These can be considered two subcategories of the same general idea: spaces where liminal life moments occur. They are defined less by the physical layout of our environment and more by events in our lives. Time-based liminal spaces, which we occupy for a period of our lives while transitioning to a new stage of life. The transition from childhood is a common example: playgrounds, classrooms, toy stores, and arcades are spaces we occupy during the process of moving from child to adult. Status-based liminal spaces, which we occupy while undergoing a change in social status. For example, a church during a marriage, in which participants enter legally single, perform a ceremony, and leave married. Or, in army boot camp, where participants enter as recruits, undergo intense training, and leave as soldiers. This is the only place I mention playgrounds, as a part of theorizing (“I think”) that liminal spaces can be considered metaphorically as well. That’s what people do in essays: they think out loud, they speculate. Especially about very slippery concepts like liminality. I argue that they are liminal spaces because yes, they are not destinations in the broader picture of our lives. They are steps in the process of growing up. From the perspective of an adult, the playground is a space representing the time before a major change - being an adult. That is pretty much textbook liminality. These are hardly “examples of extremely non liminal spaces,” as you claim. This is probably also why playgrounds and malls are so often used as examples of liminal spaces online. I discussed this later in the article, which I assume you didn’t read. Next time, maybe try reading the article and thinking about it for at least a minute before jumping in for a quick middlebrow dismissal? https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/gpcl89/middlebrow_dismissals_paul_graham/?rdt=46140 https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/gpcl89/midd... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726248