Randolph Carter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Randolph Carter is a recurring protagonist in H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle works. Carter is a thinly disguised alter ego of Lovecraft himself; indeed, the first tale in which Carter appears, "The Statement of Randolph Carter" (1919), was based on Lovecraft's transcription of a vivid dream — Lovecraft added only a prologue to make it flow as a narrative.

The character is portrayed as quite similar to Lovecraft — Carter is an uncelebrated author, whose literature has frequently gone unnoticed. A melancholy figure, Carter is depicted as a quiet, contemplative artist and dreamer with a sensitive disposition, prone to fainting during times of emotional stress.

Randolph Carter appears or is mentioned in the following Lovecraft stories:

• "The Statement of Randolph Carter" (1919)
• "The Unnamable" (1923)
• "The Silver Key" (1926)
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926-1927)
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)
• "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (1933)

[edit] Biography

Randolph Carter is an antiquarian, like a number of Lovecraftian characters, and is a former attendant of Miskatonic University in Arkham. It is implied, and later confirmed, that he has a number of connections in and experiences with the occult by the time of "The Statement of Randolph Carter." Like all things Lovecraft, much about his life is left vague. He likely lived much of his life and most of his childhood in Boston. He is very enamoured of the city, and dreams of an idealized version of it.

In "The Statement of Randolph Carter," an early Carter, as a student of the occult, joins his friend Warren in investigating a crypt that could lead between this world and an underworld where demons dwell. Warren has an occult manuscript that may or may not be the Necronomicon. After Warren descends into the pit alone, he sends back several strange messages by phone before calling for Carter to flee. An unearthly voice informs Carter that Warren is dead.

Later, in "The Unnamable," Carter tells a friend about a non-Euclidean being in a nearby house. The two are attacked by this indescribable being, but survive.

"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", one of Lovecraft's longest tales, is the longest piece concerning Carter. It follows several months of Carter's life spent searching the dream world for the lost city of his own dreams. In the narrative, it is revealed that Carter knows, or knows of, many of the characters, settings, and phenomenon of other Lovecraftian works. Carter also detailed and exhaustive knowledge of the politics and geography of the dream world, and is not unknown in certain circles there. After an elaborate journey, practically an odyssey, where he overcomes many hardships, Carter learns his dream city is an idealized version of Boston. The city was stolen by the gods to be their home, as it was so gorgeous. However, as the story draws to a conclusion, the mind and soul of the gods, Nyarlathotep, implores Carter to take back his city, as it distracts the gods from whatever else it is that incomprehensible beings do. The scheme is also a double-cross, even as he succeeds, Carter nearly tumbles into oblivion while recovering the city. But, in a flash of insight, Carter wakes up, and thus returns to his body the same evening in which he left it.

"The Silver Key" begins the cycle describing Carter's bizarre end. In this short narrative, Carter seeks out a silver key from his childhood, which he believes holds ancient powers. He uses the key to exit the world and no one is the wiser. The story ends there. Then, in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," which was a critical flop, we learn what became of Carter. A mysterious and disguised person gathers acquaintances of Carter together to tell them his story. He explains that the key took Carter to a type of higher dimension. There, Carter, on an ill-defined mission, traveled strange sections of the cosmos and brushed dangerously some Outer Gods before meeting a more primordial Carter. This being explains that conscious beings are facets of greater beings, like itself. As Carter is part of this being, and it appears to be proud of his accomplishments, it offers to grant him a wish. Carter explains that he would love to know about a particular long-extinct race on a distant planet. The primordial Carter accomplishes this by transferring Carter's consciousness into the body of one of his facets among that race. The two beings find each other repugnant but are now stuck in the same body, periodically changing dominance. Carter finds a means of suppressing the alien mind with drugs, and then uses their technology along with the silver key to return, both to the present and to Earth. When the story reaches this point, one in the party gathered accuses the narrator of being Carter, in an alien body, in disguise. The narrator escapes mystically, but not before one of the party gets a look under the costume, but the end is left vague. What is said is that Carter and the narrator are never heard from again.

[edit] Non-Lovecraft appearances

Randolph Carter appears in The Clock of Dreams, a Cthulhu Mythos novel by Brian Lumley.

In "Allan and the Sundered Veil", a serialized prose backup in the first six issues of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book, Randolph Carter teams up with several famous literary characters, including H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain,H. G. Wells’ time traveler from The Time Machine, and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. In Moore's fiction, Randolph Carter is a direct descendant of Burroughs’ John Carter. This is especially interesting since both the names Randolph and Carter are the names of two of the First Families of Virginia.

Carter appears thrice in the Lovecraft-themed musical parody A Shoggoth on the Roof, including in the opening number.

In Hans Rodionoff's comic Lovecraft, Randolph Carter is the name Lovecraft uses while travelling in Arkham and battling the Old Ones. He tells his wife, "They can't know my Christian name here."

In the parody RPG Pokéthulhu, the main protagonist is a young boy named Randy Carter.

In Chaosium's collectable card game MYTHOS and its MYTHOS: Dreamlands expansion, Randolph Carter appears as an ally card.

[edit] References

• H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness.
• H. P. Lovecraft, Dagon and Other Macabre Tales.