Blind Read Through: H.P. Lovecraft; The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, Pt. 1

At which point the inception was implanted in his mind.  What was the truth?  What was reality and what was dream?  Was there any truth to what he had experienced, or was the implantation of the concept there to set the pace?  Curiosity killed the cat (with the exception of the cats of Ulthar).

Welcome back to another Blind Read!  This time we’re diving into the Dreamlands, a place where I’ve been interested in for quite some time, and dying to dive into.  But low and behold!  We’ve already read many stories that take place in the Dreamlands and were just unaware that that’s what they were!

This story, much like “At the Mountains of Madness”, seem to be a world building exercise for Lovecraft.  This is a bit of a departure from the weird stories that I’ve been devouring.  This one is more of an adventure, that incorporated elements of some of the other stories.  Because of this correlation, it shines some new light on those other stories and what their meanings might have really been.  I’ll get more into that in other posts, however, because that would be a post in and of itself.  Here I’d like to talk a little about the story and the concept of Inception.

So we start the story with Randolph Carter, after just hearing his statement in the previous Blind Read.  Here we find that Carter is a experienced “dreamer”, and through this lucid dreaming, has the ability to travel throughout the Dreamlands.

The story starts with our intrepid traveler dreaming about a beautiful sunset city:

“Three times Randolph Carter dreamed of the marvelous city, and three times was he snatched away while still he paused on the high terrace above it.  All golden and lovely it blazed in the sunset, with walls, temples, colonnades and arched bridges of veined marble, silver-basined fountains of prismatic spray in broad squares and perfumed gardens, and wide streets marching between delicate trees and blossom-laden urns and ivory statues in gleaming rows…and as Carter stood breathless and expectant on that balustraded parapet there swept up to him the poignancy and suspense of almost-vanished memory, the pain of lost things and the maddening need to place again what once had been an awesome and momentous place.”

OK, lets start with how many times Carter was able to see the fabled city.  Three is an interesting choice, not only for the religious implications, but also in western Occultism (though I wonder how much of Western Occultism actually stems from Lovecraft).  Knowing a little bit of Lovecraft’s religious views, however I proscribe that there are a few different things going on here.  The first is that 3 is a prime number, whose only factors are one and itself.  Once Carter viewed the city three times, he was unable to view it any more.  Could this have something to do with the exclusivity of the city and that there are 3 levels of the Dreamlands?  Could he have only viewed the city once (the first factor), but because there are three different layers of the Dreamlands, he was able to view it three times?  One for each layer?

While you chew on that, thee is also an Odd number, truly the first Odd number.  Where number 1 can be mixed into other equations, the number 3 throws a wrench into things.  So this could be that Lovecraft is trying to make us feel on edge, through a subsumed psychosomatic response?  Just like we talked about in the Blind Read of “At the Mountains of Madness” ( https://seanmmcbride.com/2018/03/23/blind-read-through-h-p-lovecraft-at-the-mountains-of-madness-conclusion/ ) Lovecraft uses Trypophobia (or the fear of small holes, as in a honeycomb) through his description of architecture.  Something that nature made, that was not quite natural.  Also his use of odd angles in “The Dreams in the Witch House”.  He uses these slightly off themes to set the pace for the story.

Then we see some of the grand architecture through his description of the city.  This hearkens back to stories like “The Tree”( Blind Read Through: H.P. Lovecraft; The Tree ), where we get some grand beauty, with a yearning to be where it is so pristine and wonderful.  Doubtless this is what Carter feels.  He has a desire to reach this city, but there is something ominous about it.  Just like there was in “The Tree”.  It is off limits, unattainable, and in fact the visions were stripped from him, and every person he asks tells him to drop it.  That the pursuit of the city is not one he should continue.  Could this all be a ruse set about by Nyarlathotep to enslave Carter?

This brings me to my final point in the inception (see what I did there?) of the “Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” Blind Read.  The last time we saw Carter he passed out as his friend was killed by some horrible monstrosity in a tomb.  Could this have been the Inception of the Dream for Carter?  Could whatever creature that was down in that tomb, have imprinted the idea of the Golden City into Carter’s mind?  Could they have knowledge that Carter is an experienced Dreamer that is capable of actually getting to Kadath?  We are told that only three travelers had gone to the outer reaches, and only one came back sane.  Could this be a implanted call from the messenger god Nyarlathotep?  Is that why the call is so strong that Carter can’t stop his search, even though he is told to stop at every turn, and nearly dies in his dreams many times?

What do YOU think?

Join me next week as we talk about world building and how other short stories are in connection through the Dreamlands