I love all the places you travel in this piece, Jenn - I won’t say the journey offers liminal space for my own thoughts, because I like your contrarian definition of “liminal.” But there are thresholds here and so many emotional after images. And you do bring back the pandemic, in all its kenopsian melancholy. Here’s what I wrote about Harvard Square in March 2020:
“I headed into the cold wind down Mass. Ave., noting only a few passersby and cars on the street at rush hour. At rush hour? There were empty buses lined up. I’d been beating back my own sadness for days, but the chilly loneliness of an urban tourist spot with no people brought a whiff of despair, which was worse. I imagined cardboard boxes or tumbleweeds blowing down the avenue, as if the apocalypse had already happened.”
O this is beautiful! Yes! This is exactly that feeling, isn’t it?
I should share a catalog of a bunch of my partner’s liminal space pics. So many trippy little corners in so many hotels in so many places across the world. Or I should convince him to put them up here on Substack. There’s some wild images--really good weird art.
Not really. Some of it is due to better cars and roads which makes it easier to travel farther for things you need. Some of its loss of industries or just consolidation of farms by agro businesses. And often even if the town thrives (like my old home town) it’s irrevocably changed by gentrification (my old home town is still very small but has some of the highest home prices in the country).
We stopped being a rural nation some time after WW2 and the trend has only accelerated. It’s too bad since many people no longer have any rural connection. And as we used to say when I was a kid “Farming is everyone’s bread and butter.”
Also to be fair, I’m pretty sure this is a new word. If I’m correct, I think it was coined in 2012, and I don’t believe it’s been added to the dictionary yet, though I believe they’re watching for its use.
I didn’t realize there was a word for this, but kenopsia is prevalent in any small boy mid sized town or city in the rural west that isn’t just off a freeway. The abandoned stores, defunct gas stations, empty hotels and restaurants. From places like Amboy in the Mojave desert to Claunch or Cedarvale in New Mexico it’s incredibly sad.
I love all the places you travel in this piece, Jenn - I won’t say the journey offers liminal space for my own thoughts, because I like your contrarian definition of “liminal.” But there are thresholds here and so many emotional after images. And you do bring back the pandemic, in all its kenopsian melancholy. Here’s what I wrote about Harvard Square in March 2020:
“I headed into the cold wind down Mass. Ave., noting only a few passersby and cars on the street at rush hour. At rush hour? There were empty buses lined up. I’d been beating back my own sadness for days, but the chilly loneliness of an urban tourist spot with no people brought a whiff of despair, which was worse. I imagined cardboard boxes or tumbleweeds blowing down the avenue, as if the apocalypse had already happened.”
From https://talkingwriting.com/dreams-escape
O this is beautiful! Yes! This is exactly that feeling, isn’t it?
I should share a catalog of a bunch of my partner’s liminal space pics. So many trippy little corners in so many hotels in so many places across the world. Or I should convince him to put them up here on Substack. There’s some wild images--really good weird art.
I would enjoy seeing more of those liminal pix 😉
Not really. Some of it is due to better cars and roads which makes it easier to travel farther for things you need. Some of its loss of industries or just consolidation of farms by agro businesses. And often even if the town thrives (like my old home town) it’s irrevocably changed by gentrification (my old home town is still very small but has some of the highest home prices in the country).
We stopped being a rural nation some time after WW2 and the trend has only accelerated. It’s too bad since many people no longer have any rural connection. And as we used to say when I was a kid “Farming is everyone’s bread and butter.”
I’d also never heard the term before, but I live around Richmond, Virginia, so I experience it pretty much any time I step outside
Also to be fair, I’m pretty sure this is a new word. If I’m correct, I think it was coined in 2012, and I don’t believe it’s been added to the dictionary yet, though I believe they’re watching for its use.
Yeah I do especially when I go downtown. And sometimes in Boulder (my hometown) but that’s a bit more on the liminal/construction side of the fence.
I didn’t realize there was a word for this, but kenopsia is prevalent in any small boy mid sized town or city in the rural west that isn’t just off a freeway. The abandoned stores, defunct gas stations, empty hotels and restaurants. From places like Amboy in the Mojave desert to Claunch or Cedarvale in New Mexico it’s incredibly sad.
I wonder what can be done, if anything.
Here's a sort of violent Kenopsia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=458WQn71KMk
Oh yeah! Great connection!