Ordering the Randolph Carter stories

[Genus Unknown]

In "The Silver Key," Randolph Carter has lost the key to the gate of dreams, and is looking for ways to get the magic of life back. It's this story more than any other that lays out the course of Carter's life, and the only way I can make the timeline fit is to assume that The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, which was written (or at least completed) last, takes place first.

Here's how I think it goes:

The Dream-Quest - Randolph Carter is a dreamer, well experienced in the Dreamlands. He sees his magical sunset city, pursues it, and is ultimately smacked down by Nyarlathotep. At the end of this story/novella, he awakes in his own bed. If he ever "lost the key to the gate of dream," it would have to be then. So at the end, when Nyarlathotep tricks him and sends him screaming back to Earth, it's doubly horrific/tragic because he's now barred from the Dreamlands altogether. This leads to the scrabbling for meaning and diversion that is recounted in "The Silver Key."

"The Statement of Randolph Carter" and "The Unnamable" - After turning to writing and the occult, he meets Harley Warren, goes graveyard-exploring, and plays that little prank on his friend in "The Unnamable." But these don't do the trick, which leads us to...

"The Silver Key," in which he gets a little of the old joy of life back by revisiting his youth, and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," in which he turns into an alien and dies. Right? It's been a while since I read that one. And there's a clock involved somewhere too.

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

I'd always thought of Statement being the first and the rest following on that, Unnamable coming either before or after Dream Quest, it could fit either place. The Randolph Carter we meet in Statement isn't a Randolph Carter that seems like he's gone up against Nyarlathotep himself...or one who has ghoul allies. What are your other reasons for putting Statement before Dream Quest?

[Genus Unknown]

I'm just trying to sort out the info we get in "The Silver Key." In it, Randolph Carter loses the key to the gate of dreams, which leads him to try writing and occultism and so forth, which is what leads him to Harley Warren. "Statement," then, has to take place after he loses the key of dreams, and as far as I can tell, that has to be after the events of the Dream-Quest.

Also note that, while we get something of a recap of his exploits in a couple of other stories to establish that it's the same Carter, we get no such recap in the Dream-Quest. It starts with his search for the sunset city, and ends with being tricked by Nyarlathotep.

The disconnect between the Carter of the Dream-Quest and the Carter of "Statement" can perhaps by explained by the dream nature of his prior adventures (and also the fact that when he wrote "Statement," Lovecraft probably didn't know he was going to build on this character later). Sure, he went toe-to-toe with the Crawling Chaos, but after all, that was just a dream. He wouldn't think muich of it when he was awake.  The waking Carter and the dream-Carter are practically two different people. Real-world Carter is meek, somewhat cowardly, and easily bullied. Dream-Carter is General freaking Patton by contrast. Perhaps that's why the Dreamlands are so important to both forms ("avatars?" "masks?") of Carter. It's the only place where he can be the adventurer he wants to be.

Then there's the whole "Silver Key" time loop to complilcate things, but I haven't had my coffee yet. 

[davidsverse]

Carter does not die in Through the Gates.  It's been a while since I have read it. 

[Kryptych]

To me, there are some key points about Randolph Carter in The Statement of Randolph Carter and reconciling him with the Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

1) The story is, by nature, Carter's account under interrogation, with the implication in those opening lines being that he is the prime suspect in the disappearance - possible murder - of his friend, Harley Warren. In spite of his presumed innocence (presumed by the reader if we're to take the statement as truth and since there's little evidence to suggest otherwise), that would put anybody on edge.

2) His friend died (supposedly) in an ancient tomb that they were exploring in an unmarked cemetery, which the authorities say is not actually there, in a swamp at Midnight. And besides, as our illustrious Podcraft hosts pointed out several times, a cemetery at night can play on one's mind and fears. Especially if he'd already been through the events of Dream-Quest...; a cemetery might seem like nothing after that, but then again... who knows what tricks his mind is playing at this point?

3) Despite his expressions of finding it merciful that he wasn't aware of the full extent of Warren's studies, there are few times in the story when Carter seems ready to take action in spite of fear.
"I seemed desperately anxious to accompany my friend into those sepulchral depths, yet he proved inflexibly obdurate."
"But my friend was in greater danger than I, and through my fear I felt a vague resentment that he should deem me capable of deserting him under such circumstances."
"Something in the boyish slang of my evidently stricken companion unleashed my faculties. I formed and shouted a resolution, 'Warren, brace up! I’m coming down!'"
Really, as I read the story, I find Carter to be no less nervous than the average person would be in such a situation. It's Harley Warren who seems to be painting Carter as some sort of coward or mollycoddle, while Carter is the one reluctant to stay on the surface and simply... wait around. As Mr. Leman did point out, the one going into the tomb is the one in control and who seems to know what he's doing, so that might be at least a little indicative of Carter being too nervous to sit around and wait for who knows what, but I think it also shows that Carter is ready to go and wants to actually participate.

4) Even in the Dream-Quest..., Carter does exhibit moments of fear and/or horror. I think in the actual text, it doesn't register as much since there's little actual dialogue until Nyarlathotep's appearance, so readers only get what is essentially a play-by-play of the story with little to no insight into Carter's actual state of mind. One time when the text does present fear is when he sees the High Priest Not to be Described: "And in that hideous second stark fear drove him to something his reason would never have dared to attempt..." That sounds like something the Carter of The Statement... would do. Fear is as actionable for him as it is paralyzing. And personally, I'd think that after going through this massive quest, encountering strange and terrible beings that he'd never seen before, and then meeting Nyarlathotep and nearly Azathoth itself... it makes sense that he'd be a bundle of nerves in life after that. Sure, t'was only a dream... but as part of Lovecraft's cosmic vision, dreams can be an access point to some of the universe's most dreadful and terrifying vistas.

This is all how I reconciled the idea that The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is probably the first of Carter's adventures in Lovecraft's universe, with the rest following more or less as Genus Unknown points out.