Opening Statement:
When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water that torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victims body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods.What in Brown Jenkin's Name..?
Drugged dreaming leads a man beyond a forbidden gate.Synopsis:
A man dreams of a locked bronze gate. In another dream (about the city Zakarion) he reads about what lies beyond the gate. He obtains a drug which will enable him to open the gate of his dreams. After passing through the gate he finds himself in an empty void.Essential Saltes:
But as the gate swung wider and the sorcery of the drug and the dream pushed me through, I knew that all sights and glories were at an end; for in that new realm was neither land nor sea, but only the white void of unpeopled and illimitable space.From Dr. Armitage's Notes:
- Like Kuranes, Randolph Carter, the man in "Azathoth", and other characters in HPL's world, the main character travels to unreachable lands by way of dream.
- The void where the narrator ends up brings to mind "Nyarlathotep" and "Azathoth".
- Zakarion is probably in the same "dream province" as Zar and Thalarion ("The White Ship").
The Horrible Conclusion:
So, happier than I had ever dared hope to be, I dissolved again into that native infinity of crystal oblivion from which the daemon Life had called me for one brief and desolate hour.Read it here.
Follow'd by "The Nameless City".
