Finishing The King in Yellow: The Repairer of Reputations

The first story stars and finishes like a Lovecraft story. The slow build up and descent into insanity had me questioning the protagonist's point of view. Was the crown real or scrap? Was the cat a cat or some rabid animal? Our protagonists insanity and irritation creates a lethal mixture that distances him from others to the point of breaking. But the lack of answers only leads me to more questions. Who are these people that Mr. Wilde has conscripted into his uprising? Wilde keeps a list of people he's "repaired" but we are never told if these people are real or a figment of his insanity. Meanwhile our protagonist seems to be drinking the same kool-aid as Wilde and is prepared to inherit the throne of America. It is another theme I wished the author had dived into. What is this uprising about? I couldn't find any info on the political climate around Robert Chambers time but the book was written in the shadow of the post civil war in 1895. The story is set around twenty years in the future. I believe this is done by authors to show to the reader how this could be our future if action is not taken. Chambers seems to have abandoned both the book and the weird fiction for romance novels on which he made his living. A shame because the The King in Yellow is one of the pillars he's remembered.

There's something else I need to address. The tale of Carcosa or Carcassonne is something of a tragedy that has been passed down by authors and poets. It starts with Ambrose Bierce but other authors have used the tragedy of Carcassonne as a torch handed off to the next generation. Other creative endeavors have been done but the one that comes to mind is the song saga of Major Tom, one of my favorite songs by Peter Schilling who took the reigns from the great David Bowie. It's a thrill to trace back and see the literal history of how a work can influence others. And at the end, the reader has to decide on how it affects them.