If you're not familiar with what the term 'liminal space' means, let us enlighten you. There are several different contexts in which people use the term. The word 'liminal' means 'intermediate,' a state, a phase, or a condition. A liminal space therefore is transitional, a threshold of sorts.

Liminality isn't always physical, although in the context of this list and the concept of liminal spaces on the Internet, it usually is. Works of gothic literature, for example, are ample with metaphorical liminality. Frankenstein's Creature, for instance, embodies a liminal state of being because he is a living corpse.

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights uses the moors as a physical liminal space. Situated between where the two families live, the moors become a sort of bridge between two worlds, two social classes. It's also the place where the relationship between the two protagonists develops the most.

In Wuthering Heights, the moors exist as a wild space out of the bounds of society, where certain social norms can be transgressed. Catherine and Heathcliff also appear as ghosts at the moors at the end of the novel, so it's also possible they are a sort of passageway from this world to the next.

On the Internet, however, liminal spaces are surreal, eerie, and unsettling. In most cases, they're abandoned or empty (of people) spaces: offices, streets, corridors, hotel hallways, etc. Liminal spaces gained a lot of popularity in 2019 when a post on 4chan about The Backrooms, a particular liminal space, went viral.

The Internet is very fond of liminal spaces. Twitter page @SpaceLiminalBot has 1.2M followers. The Instagram account @liminalmoods boasts 463k followers. The Reddit community r/LiminalSpaces has almost 800k members. They pride themselves on The Matrix-like aesthetics, with descriptions like "Trip on the verge of reality" and "You've been here before. Wake up."

The surrealism of a liminal space comes from its familiarity. Just like with the concept of the uncanny valley, liminal spaces creep us out and attract us so much at the same time because it's a mix of the known and the unknown. Some point to Giorgio de Chirico's "The Tower" as an example of liminal space in art, yet others say the place for that to work should be more recognizable.

To those living in current times, the aesthetic and concept of liminal spaces seem especially attractive because of the current state of uncertainty our world and society give us. As Jake Pitre writes for The Atlantic, "The pace of modern life seems impossible to keep up with, yet our lived reality does not change. So as society waits for the breaking point to come, liminal spaces make the anticipation of those fears visible, and reaffirm that other people are looking at the world the same way."

You might notice that we're struggling with getting to a proper definition for 'liminal spaces' here. That's because it's hard to pin down what they mean exactly. That's why it might be helpful to note what they're not. According to the r/LiminalSpace subreddit, they're not just creepy, surreal, or simply nostalgic. 

To people who prefer to learn by looking at visuals, The Shining can be a good example of what the Internet means when they talk about liminal spaces. The abandoned and decaying Overlook Hotel with its many hallways evokes a forlorn and uneasy feeling. As the camera follows little Danny riding his tricycle, the fear of the unknown grows even stronger.

The urban legend of The Backrooms is also what inspired the TV series Severance. The show's creator took the idea of a place composed of infinite office spaces and hallways and explored what would happen if we actually put people there; what would happen if we transitioned from our reality to some other?

But, to me personally, the most interesting representation of a liminal space would be The Black Lodge in Twin Peaks (although a lot of folks on the r/LiminalSpace subreddit would disagree with that). You can't deny how stylish and cool David Lynch's version of an in-between place looks—a waiting room between this life and the next, between reality and the dreamworld.