History Literature / TheNorthernCaves

* [[invoked]]WriteWhatYouKnow: What Aaron calls "the Space Episode" is clearly based on William Chen's suicide. It involves a character obliquely called W stepping out of a ship's airlock, against the protestations of Sally. In space, W has a strange string of conversations with supernatural-seeming beings about "immolation", "unbraiding", and an "angel". He decides to take part of that, and is destroyed, ending with the line, "W gone". The story is presented to us sandwiched between the Salby journal entry that says, "I have not seen many pleasing things in World but I remember the look of joy on WCs dying face and that is one of the few good one," and Ken's story about what happened to William.

* [[invoked]]WriteWhatYouKnow: What Aaron calls "the Space Episode" is clearly based on William Chen's suicide. It involves a character obliquely called W stepping out of a ship's airlock, against the protestations of Sally. In space, W has a strange string of conversations with supernatural-seeming beings about "immolation", "unbraiding", and an "angel". He decides to take part of that, and is destroyed, ending with the line, "W gone".

* InNameOnly: What Aaron dubs the "Tales" section are segments with decernable stories in them -- weird confusing jumbled stories, but stories after some fashion. They involve the names of Chesscourt characters but they don't act like their Chesscourt counterparts. They're not just OutOfCharacter, but OutOfGenre as well, and really seem to have no relation to Chesscourt.

* MindScrew: It begins like a Chesscourt novel then dissolves into nonsense. Most infamously there's 3 pages of just the letter A. In that sea on nonsense, occasionally sections that appear to have a story emerge, but they're weird. They're {{out of genre|Experience}} compared to Chesscourt. While they sometimes contain Chesscourt names or words, any likenesses between the two are InNameOnly.

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

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: In Chesscourt, the sides of good and evil are very clearly defined. The "correct" actions the protagonists must take are directly laid out for them, and the difficulty is more often in carrying out said actions than in having to make difficult or morally ambiguous decisions. Considering the prominent chess motifs, it's likely a case of ''literal'' black-and-white morality. This kind of thinking is a prominent aspect of Salby's personal philosophy, to the extent that he is professionally diagnosed with "an obsessive fixation on moral concerns".

* FunnyAnimal: The Lorrums are essentially rabbits with the capacity for human-like intellect and society. Salby explicitly mentions in his notes that he included "funny talking animals" as part of his ploy to appeal to children.
* GrowingWithTheAudience: Zigzagging. The first book is unambiguously ChildrensLiterature. The later books are not, but it's not exactly clear if they're for adults, either. Chesscourt does ''change'' as it goes along, but it doesn't really "grow up".

* MachineWorship: The Lorrums are rabbit-like creatures described as having a "quasi-religious fetishism or idolatry for machines and technological progress," which Ombudsman suggests stands in for "the whole of human enterprise"; Jenny's interpretation in her fic is that it stems from a fear of "disharmony". It acts as a microcosm of the greater themes of Chesscourt -- a mechanical, black-and-white simplicity -- which ties back into the philosophy of Mundum.

* {{Manchild}}: One reoccurring criticism of the books is that, while they get more complicated, they never ''conceptually mature''. Charles Adair's review says "its sensibility never progresses beyond that of a precocious adolescent." The podcasters call the series "psychologically very unambitious, even infantile." Chesscourt is ''complicated'', yes, but it's still a world where everything has predictable consequences and morality is clear-cut. Chesscourt lacks ambiguity. The podcasters characterize this as "a yearning for the clarity of pre-adolescent childhood." A big part of growing up is coming to terms with the fact that ''the world is messy''. Things don't always make sense; duty is not always clear. This is the crux of Salby's own philosophy of Mundum, a worldview where right and wrong are unambiguously predetermined.

* [[invoked]]ProtectionFromEditors: As LaterInstallmentWeirdness set in, Salby's editor began to object. Salby elected to self-published the final 2 books (''The Sea of Glass'' and ''Chesscourt Regained'') without an editor. In Paul's signature, he calls himself "the only person in existence whose favorite CC book is Sea of Glass," implying these self-published books have a questionable reputation even within the fandom who loves the series. As for Paul himself, he describes being initially very impressed by Salby's unwillingness to {{sell out}}, but qualifies this with a reminder that he was a college student at the time, implying he's become more critical since then.

* GrowingWithTheAudience: Zigzagging. The first book is unambiguously ChildrensLiterature. The latter books are not. Chesscourt does ''change'' as it goes along, but it doesn't really "grow up".
-->'''Paul's narration:''' 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 [[NoHuggingNoKissing sex and romance are absent]]. Nor do the characters [[RiteOfPassage "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.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Within the "mundane" interpretation of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, their belief that the suicides of strangers are really all about them comes off as very self-involved.

* NerdsAreVirgins: DownplayedTrope. Chesscourt fans ''do'' date. Paul was originally introduced to Chesscourt by his girlfriend-at-the-time. But it ''is'' fair to say that none of them are spending lots of time in this online forum because they have a thriving social lives.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: In Chesscourt, the sides of good and evil are very clearly defined. The "correct" actions the protagonists must take are directly laid out for them, and the difficulty is more often in carrying out said actions than in having to make difficult or morally ambiguous decisions. Considering the prominent chess motifs, it's likely a case of ''literal'' black-and-white morality. This is a prominent aspect of the Salby's personal philosophy, to the extent that he is professionally diagnosed with "an obsessive fixation with moral concerns".

--->'''Charles Adair:''' As ''Other Mirrors'' demands from its reader a certain drab, bureaucratic cast of mind, no child who is fully a child will enjoy it; as its sensibility never progresses beyond that of a precocious adolescent, no adult who is fully an adult will tolerate it. Salby has written what is perhaps a definitive test of abnormal development, but he has written a dreadful novel.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: In Chesscourt, the sides of good and evil are very clearly defined. The "correct" actions the protagonists must take are very clearly laid out for them, and the difficulty is more often in carrying out said actions than in having to make difficult or morally ambiguous decisions. Considering the prominent chess motifs, it's very often a case of ''literal'' black-and-white morality. This is a prominent aspect of the Salby's personal philosophy, to the extent that he is professionally diagnosed with "an obsessive fixation with moral concerns".

* {{Doorstopper}}: As the Chesscourt series goes on, in addition to LaterInstallmentWeirdness, the books also get longer and longer. The nine books lengths are: 166 pages, 255 pages, 242 pages, 271 pages, 345 pages, 435 pages, 676 pages, 775 pages, 844 pages. It caps off with ''The Northern Caves'', which is ''3,642 pages'' -- it's unclear if it was ever intended to be published, but the upon seeing the manuscript, the Spelunkers "gawk at the thick stack of typed pages."

* {{Manchild}}: One reoccurring criticism of the books is that, while they get more complicated, they never ''conceptually mature''. Charles Adair's review says "its sensibility never progresses beyond that of a precocious adolescent." The podcasters call the series "psychologically very unambitious, even infantile." Chesscourt is ''complicated'', yes, but it's still a world where everything has predictable consequences and morality is clear-cut. Chesscourt lacks ambiguity. The podcasters characterize this as "a yearning for the clarity of pre-adolescent childhood." A big part of growing up is coming to terms with the fact that ''the world is messy''. Things don't always make sense; duty is not always clear. This is the crux of Salby's own philosophy of Murdur, the idea that things need to be objectively correct.

* [[invoked]]UncertainAudience:
** Chesscourt could be charitably framed as GrowingWithTheAudience, except it's done so weirdly that the latter books aren't well suited to ''any'' age range. It's too complicated for a child to be able to follow, yet not conceptually mature enough to appeal to most adults.

-->'''Charles Adair:''' As ''Other Mirrors'' demands from its reader a certain drab, bureaucratic cast of mind, no child who is fully a child will enjoy it; as its sensibility never progresses beyond that of a precocious adolescent, no adult who is fully an adult will tolerate it. Salby has written what is perhaps a definitive test of abnormal development, but he has written a dreadful novel.

-->''It is correct for me now to instruct you on certain points concerning the proper arrangement of material. It is correct for me to generate sentences which, as abstracta, are embodied in ASCII encoded in capacitor charges and then conveyed via electric current to other capacitor charges which encode the selfsame ASCII embodying the selfsame abstracta. It is permitted, if not necessarily correct, for me to sequentially arrange my musculature so as to produce depressions in an approximately flat plastic surface, and without arranging my musculature in this fashion it would not be feasible to set in place the required capacitances and currents, so it is thus correct that I perform this series of muscular arrangements.''

* [[invoked]]CultClassic: The Chesscourt fandom really cherishes the series, but the mainstream opinion seems to be that while the first book, ''A Thornbush Tale'', was a great children's book, the later series was no good. The most discussed aspect of Chesscourt is its complexity -- praised by fans, disparaged by critics. However, both groups basically seem to agree that the books have little to offer beyond that. Critics say there's a fundamental immaturity that pervades the series. Fans admit the characters and worldbuilding leave something to be desired. Fanfic overwhelmingly changes the tone, suggesting the original ponderously weighty tone isn't exactly loved.

* [[invoked]]{{Anvilicious}}: Chesscourt is not subtle. Anyone can look at it and say, "This is the product of a man obsessed with fiendishly detail-oriented, 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.

* [[invoked]]CultClassic: The Chesscourt fandom really cherishes the series, but the mainstream opinion seems to be that the later series was no good. The most discussed aspect of Chesscourt is its complexity -- praised by fans, disparaged by critics. However, both groups basically seem to agree that the books have little to offer beyond that. Critics say there's a fundamental immaturity that pervades the series. Fans admit the characters and worldbuilding leave something to be desired. Fanfic overwhelmingly changes the tone, suggesting the original ponderously weighty tone isn't exactly loved.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As the Chesscourt series goes on, in addition to LaterInstallmentWeirdness, the books also get longer and longer. The nine books lengths are: 166 pages, 255 pages, 242 pages, 271 pages, 345 pages, 435 pages, 676 pages, 775 pages, 844 pages.

* MagicAIsMagicA: Chesscourt is relentlessly logical, and also a fantasy series, so together that creates this.

* {{Manchild}}: One reoccurring criticism of the books is that, while they get more complicated, they never ''conceptually mature''. Charles Adair's review says "its sensibility never progresses beyond that of a precocious adolescent." The podcasters call the series "psychologically very unambitious, even infantile." Chesscourt is ''complicated'', yes, but it's still a world where everything has predictable consequences and morality is clear-cut. Chesscourt lacks ambiguity. The podcasters characterize this as "a yearning for the clarity of pre-adolescent childhood." A big part of growing up is coming to terms with the fact that ''the world is messy''. Things don't always make sense; duty is not always clear.

* [[invoked]]UncertainAudience: Chesscourt could be charitably framed as GrowingWithTheAudience, except it's done so weirdly that the latter books aren't well suited to ''any'' age range. It's too complicated for a child to be able to follow, yet not conceptually mature enough to appeal to most adults.

* AlienGeometries: Experiencing "the separation" causes you to perceive your normal surroundings as this.

* AmbiguouslyGay: There is some implication that Leonard Salby and William Chen may have had a LoverAndBeloved thing going on. They lived together for a time. 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." On the flipside, Salby seemed to seen romance as antithetical to obeying Mundum, so maybe not.

* ArcWords: "Don't go into the caves."
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Its unclear why arranging things "correctly" in accordance with Mundum is "correct"; it just is.

* {{Bookends}}: Both the first and last chapters feature an excerpt where an outsider disparages Chesscourt and its fans. They're also a DistantPrologue (an interview from 1988 + a book review from 1983) and DistantFinale (a podcast from 2015) in contrast with the main story set in 2003 and 2004.

* BrokenPedestal: Learning that Leonard Salby [[spoiler:was credibly accused of murder]] is this for Aaron.

* ChemicallyInducedInsanity: Paul starts experiencing the separation after taking two Adderalls, [[spoiler:and slips the other Spelunkers Adderall in the hopes that the same will happen to them.]]

* DumbassHasAPoint: Ombudsman is pretentious, tedious, and into PurpleProse. But…
** in chapter 19 he's very right to point out that Paul seems not-ok and that someone should do something about that.
** in chapter 26 he's right to point out that it's fucked up everyone's more focused on Paul than the people who died.

* FixFic: Not in the usual plot-based "fix the story" way, but in a more thematic sense. Paul describes Chesscourt fanfic as overwhelmingly -- even defiantly -- ''anti-Salbian'' in tone.

** Paul's forum signature mentions he's one of the only people whose favorite Chesscourt book is ''Sea of Glass'', a [[invoked]] {{later installment|Weirdness}} 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.]]

* KissingCousins: Paul ships cousins Sally and Charles.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Paul has a tendency to slip into this (along with PurpleProse) in his notes, usually when he's nervous or uncomfortable about what he's writing. He lampshades this tendency a few times.

* [[invoked]]CultClassic: The Chesscourt fandom really cherishes the series, but the mainstream opinion seems to be that while the first book, ''A Thornbush Tale'', was a great children's book, the later series was no good. The most discussed aspect of Chesscourt is its complexity -- praised by fans, disparaged by critics. However, both groups basically seem to agree that the books have little to offer beyond that. Critics say there's a fundamental immaturity that pervades the series. Fans admit the characters and worldbuilding leave something to be desired. Fanfic overwhelmingly changes the tone, suggesting the original ponderously weighty tone isn't exactly loved.

* FirstInstallmentWins: While the latter Chesscourt series isn't regarded as good by anyone but the fandom, multiple critics seem to maintain that ''A Thornbush Tale'' was a great children's book.

* EpilepticTrees: Aaron is known on the Cafe as a fan theorist.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As the Chesscourt series goes on the books get longer and longer, in addition to getting weirder and more complex. The nine books lengths are: 166 pages, 255 pages, 242 pages, 271 pages, 345 pages, 435 pages, 676 pages, 775 pages, 844 pages.

* EpilepticTrees: In-universe, Aaron is known for this on the Cafe.

:: The demographics who end up liking the books are[=:=]

** Fans like Paul who came to like the books in adulthood, seemingly because they're already a little like Salby themselves.
** The podcasters mention that in their experience, Chesscourt is mostly read as MiddleGradeLiterature by nerdy middle-schoolers.
:: Salby actually ''did'' have a TargetAudience[=:=] people who shared -- or were at least amenable to -- the philosophy of Mundum. He wrote the books with that audience in mind, intentionally trying to drive away anyone else. However, that demographic is ''unimaginably'' minuscule -- perhaps just William Chen and no one else -- so the books were inevitably mostly read by others.

* WordSaladHorror: The excerpts from ''Northern Caves'' dip into barely comprehensible sentences where the exact meaning is left up to the reader to decipher; the forum posts note that they can't really decipher if it's sexual or violent because it's difficult to parse at all.

-->Councillor 14 "LOCAL CHIASTS ADVISE UNRAVEL AND REBRAID W TO PRIMAL STATE"\\
W "i will be remade before the birth of my angel"\\
Councillor 2 "REBRAID W PRECEDE ANGEL"

** The Cafe admin torgo shares a name with a character from ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate''. His forum signature is a quote from the [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]] of the movie:

-->[[spoiler:'''Errant KnightsMove:''' I feel no compulsion to join him in his "Salbian" endeavors, and given what I appear to be capable of, I think I should dissociate myself from him entirely for the near future.]]