History Literature / TheNorthernCaves

* AmbiguouslyGay: There is some implication that Leonard Salby and William Chen may or may not have had a LoverAndBeloved thing going on. Ken says of their relationship, "Len . . . had a friend, later on. Or . . . whatever he was." Paul reports rumors that "Salby killed his lover in a fit of passion."

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: In chapter 15, Aaron -- who is a bit mentally unstable, and really clings to TNC as an anchor, and who's really shaken by the story of William Chen -- goes upstairs into the bathroom and is holding onto a bottle of pills like he might take the whole thing. Paul goes up to talk to him, and tells him the only thing that will comfort him right then: they're they're going to "defeat" TNC together. Paul begins this deeply questionable idea of reading TNC straight through as a testament of love to his fragile friend. When they're exhausted and want to stop, they keep going because Aaron wants to keep going and they're afraid stopping will send him back to that state.

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: In chapter 15, Aaron -- who is a bit mentally unstable, and really clings to TNC as an anchor, and who's really shaken by the story of William Chen -- goes upstairs into the bathroom and is holding onto a bottle of pills like he might take the whole thing. Paul goes up to talk to him, and tells him the only thing that will comfort him right then: they're they're going to "defeat" TNC together.

* MadOracle: Zigzagged, but in an archetypical way, this is what Lugnut is. He's a {{troll}}, using outrageous abbreviations, a parody of TotallyRadical speak, and making it sound like he's baiting someone into a political FlameWar. The style of how he writes is all designed to make people skip over it, to not even read it much less engage in conversation with him. Yet he's got some interesting things to say, under all that. Apparently there was once a thread "Salby And CIA" which Aaron closed in the name of BanOnPolitics. Yet not being allowed to talk about politics means it's hard to talk about how Salby was reportedly at Harvard for a curiously brief visiting lectureship in 1961, which somehow tied in with Project [=MKUltra=] -- which, given what we learn later, actually sounds pretty relevant.

* PurpleProse: One of the peripheral forum users, PurpleProse, writes this way. It's exhausting and other users mostly try not to engage.

The novel is written in a ScrapbookStory style, with most of the text being participant Paul/[=GlassWave=]'s notes for a "report" he has been asked to write explaining these events. This is interspersed with snippets from forum threads and occasionally other documents. It's been praised for its accurate depiction of early-00s fandom and forum culture.

* [[invoked]]CultClassic: The Chesscourt fandom really cherishes the series, but outsiders seem far more critical of it. It's easy to see why, considering that the series is described as punishingly intricate, demanding a great deal of focus from the readers, ponderously weighty in tone, and featuring fairly flat characters. The main demographic who likes it seems to be a certain variety of now-adults who started reading it as kids, who bring to the series both the NostalgiaFilter of childhood and also an adult's capacity for remembering detail. And then there's a smaller demographic of weirdos like Paul who came to like the books in adulthood, seemingly because they're already a little like Salby themselves.

* MadArtist: Leonard Salby.

* [[invoked]]CultClassic: The Chesscourt fandom really cherishes the series, but outsiders seem far more critical of it.

* [[invoked]]{{Anvilicious}}: Chesscourt is not subtle; anyone can look at Salby's work and say, "This is the product of a man obsessed with fiendishly detail-oriented, interconnected, duty-driven plots, and largely disinterested in his characters and worldbuilding." It's easy to see where his interests laid, or what the themes were. But Salby's ''anvil'' -- obeying Mundum -- is off the wall enough that it can be hard to identify that it ''is'' an anvil without exterior knowledge of his philosophy. Once you know, though, it becomes very apparent why the series is the way it is.

** Paul's forum signature mentions he's one of the only people whose favorite Chesscourt book is ''Sea of Glass'', a [[invoked]] [[LaterInstallmentWeirdness later installment]] that took Salby's ComplexityAddiction so far he was forced to self-publish it. [[spoiler:Paul ends up being the only Spelunker to adopt Salby's philosophy of life.]]

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The Chesscourt books begin as fairly standard ChildrensLiterature. Paul describes the latter books as still having the same bones as the first book, just scaled up, but at some point "the matrix is beginning to strain under its own weight". Eventually the publisher started complaining and requesting he tone it down. Salby refused to {{sell out}}. Book #7 got published only grudgingly, #8 and #9 were self-published. The series is a philosophical treaties masquerading as literature. It appears that during the earlier books, Salby understood that in order to masquerading as literature, he had to actually make the book structurally like children's literature -- something he increasingly disregarded as time went on.

* NoHuggingNoKissing: The Chesscourt books are staunchly devoid of any romance. This is part of tremendous ''weightiness'' of the books. Fandom [[invoked]]{{shipping}}, then, it's a sort of defiance against the themes of canon.

* ScatterbrainedSenior: Zigzagging. ''The Northern Caves'' is Salby's final unpublished manuscript that he was working on at the time of his death at the age of about 76. Just ''how'' clear-headed he was at this point is a matter of debate amongst the fans. Sentiments include:

* SleepDeprivation: The Spelunkers stay up for 60 hours reading MindScrew text. MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, but on the mundane side, that is ''plenty'' enough to put someone into a distorted mental state.

* CultClassic: The Chesscourt fandom really cherishes the series, but outsiders seem far more critical of it.

* NoHuggingNoKissing: The Chesscourt books are staunchly devoid of any romance. This is part of tremendous ''weightiness'' of the books. Fandom {{shipping}}, then, it's a sort of defiance against the themes of canon.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3659997 The Northern Caves]]'' is a 2015 WebOriginalFiction novel written by nostalgebraist (previously the author of ''{{WebOriginal/Floornight}}''). Set in the [[TurnOfTheMillennium early 2000s]], it follows a group of fans on an online forum dedicated to the [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] Chesscourt fantasy book series by Leonard Salby.

* [[invoked]]{{Anvilicious}}: Anyone can look at Salby's Chesscourt series and say, "Huh, there's a man obsessed with fiendishly detail-oriented, interconnected, duty-driven plots, and largely disinterested in his characters and worldbuilding." It's clear to see where his interests lie. But Salby's particular anvil -- obeying Mundum -- is off the wall enough that, without exterior knowledge of his philosophy, it can be hard to identify that it ''is'' a philosophy or an anvil. Once you know, though, the structure of the whole series snaps into place.

* GrowingWithTheAudience: The Chesscourt books reportedly do. Sort of. In a weird way that many readers find unsatisfying.

* KissingCousins: Paul ships cousins Charles and Sally.

** Aaron paraphrases Dostoevsky’s ''Literature/NotesFromUnderground'':

* [[invoked]]UncertainAudience: Chesscourt could be thought of as GrowingWithTheAudience, but it's done in such a way that the latter books aren't well suited to ''any'' demographic. Our first introduction to the series comes from a book review calling out book #7 for precisely that.

* [[invoked]]{{Anvilicious}}: Anyone can look at Salby's Chesscourt series and say, "Huh, there's a man obsessed with fiendishly detail-oriented, interconnected, duty-driven plots, and largely disinterested in his characters and worldbuilding." But Salby's particular anvil -- obeying Mundum -- is off the wall enough that, without exterior knowledge of his philosophy, it can be hard to ''quite'' identify how that's the whole point of his books. Once you know, though, the idea that these books were written as a philosophy treaties rather than a story makes sense.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Anyone can look at Salby's Chesscourt series and say, "Huh, there's a man obsessed with fiendishly detail-oriented, interconnected, duty-driven plots, and largely disinterested in his characters and worldbuilding." But Salby's particular anvil -- obeying Mundum -- is off the wall enough that, without exterior knowledge of his philosophy, it can be hard to ''quite'' identify how that's the whole point of his books. Once you know, though, the idea that these books were written as a philosophy treaties rather than a story makes sense.

* UncertainAudience: Chesscourt could be thought of as GrowingWithTheAudience, but it's done in such a way that the latter books aren't well suited to
''any'' demographic. Our first introduction to the series comes from a book review calling out book #7 for precisely that.

-->'''Salby:''' I simply set out the world as I saw it, the vale of responsibility, and devised a cast of characters, as charismatic as I could make them and with all the gleaming oddities without which fiction today is deemed arid. I made these characters obey, simply and without straying, the voice of Mundum, never mentioning that hidden protagonist explicitly but directing all action bluntly by its command.

* ScatterbrainedSenior: Zigzagging. ''The Northern Caves'' is Salby's final unpublished manuscript that he was working on at the time of his death. Just ''how'' clear-headed he was at this point is a matter of debate amongst the fans. Sentiments include:

When one fan involved in the debate gets access to a cache of Salby's old papers, everyone is excited for what they might reveal, and a small group of the most dedicated participants meet up in person to look through them. However, things soon take a dark turn as they learn more about Salby than they bargained for...

* CosmicHorrorReveal: The revelation that [[spoiler:the diner employees to whom Aaron "spoke in the voice of the sky" committed suicide, proving that the effects of ''The Northern Caves'' aren't just in the Spelunkers' heads]]... [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane unless]] you buy the explanation that [[spoiler:it was just a coincidence.]]

-->Salby starts from the comfort zone of a prepubescent fantasy reader and builds from there. In that he's akin to [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien]] or [[Creator/CSLewis Lewis]] or any one of their progeny. But what Salby builds into is not ''maturity'', per se. He does not "grow up" with the reader. [...] The characters do not mature, except in the sense of casting off some of the cloying vocabulary that marred ''A Thornbush Tale'' (their "golly"s and "gosh"es and "darn"s). Aging is implied to occur, but sex and romance are absent. Nor do the characters "come of age," either in the sense of being initiated into the adult culture of some surrounding society or in the sense of striking out boldly on some self-determined path. Instead, the trajectory is one of increasing moral weight.

* NoHuggingNoKissing: The Chesscourt books are staunchly devoid of any romance. This is part of tremendous ''weightiness'' of the books. Paul's {{shipping}} of Charles and Sally, then, it's a sort of defiance against the themes of canon.

* NoHuggingNoKissing: The Chesscourt books are staunchly devoid of any romance. This is part of tremendous ''weightiness'' of the books. The fandom {{shipping}} of Charles and Sally, then, it's a sort of defiance against the themes of canon.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3659997 The Northern Caves]]'' is a 2015 WebOriginalFiction novel written by nostalgebraist, previously the author of {{WebOriginal/Floornight}}. Set in the [[TurnOfTheMillennium early 2000s]], it follows a group of fans on an online forum dedicated to the [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] Chesscourt fantasy book series by Leonard Salby.

When one fan involved in the debate gets access to a cache of Salby's old papers, everyone is excited for what they might reveal, and a small group of the most dedicated participants meet up in person to look through them. However, things soon take a dark turn as they learn more about Salby than they bargained for....

!!''The Northern Caves'' ​provides examples of:

--> "You must not imagine that for beings like you and us there can be laughter. The low men laugh, and we envy them. But for us, the higher ones, there is no laughter, only an unending vigil, purely serious, stretching on into the night."

---> '''Aaron''': "Don't even try because two times two makes four, gentlemen, is not life but the beginning of death."
** On two occasions, Paul makes reference to the "[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour place where there is no darkness]]": first in the brightly-lit bathroom where Aaron's emotional state first starts to crumble, and second when stepping outside on the sunny morning when [[spoiler:he first begins to embrace Salby's philosophy]].

* TurnOfTheMillennium: The book's setting, complete with early-fandom-style forum threads.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3659997 The Northern Caves]]'' is a 2015 WebOriginalFiction novel written by nostalgebraist, previously the author of {{WebOriginal/Floornight}}. Set in the [[TurnOfTheMillennium early 2000s]], it follows a group of fans on an online forum dedicated to the [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] Chesscourt fantasy book series by Leonard Salby. The plot kicks off when one forum regular decides to attempt to understand Salby's unpublished final work ''The Northern Caves'', three thousand pages of incomprehensible MindScrew. The attempt spawns numerous theories and interpretations, and increasingly acrimonious debate as the fans struggle to fit ''The Northern Caves'' into the orderly Chesscourt series they know.