# Joe Slater — Short Fiction character guide

> Joe Slater in Short Fiction by H. P. Lovecraft.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Slater

**First appearance:** 0002-beyond-the-wall-of-sleep

## Snapshot

An illiterate Catskill moonshiner who raves of luminous cities and floating palaces, and is committed for a murder he cannot remember committing.

## Who they are

Slater arrives at the asylum as a violent, incoherent backwoodsman, tried and acquitted on grounds of insanity after a killing he never explains. In his quiet hours he weaves willow baskets and pines for the mountains; in his fits he describes radiant alien cities with a vocabulary no degenerate should possess. The narrator's fascination with this gap between the man and his visions drives the story's central question about where dreams come from.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

Joe Slater is a disturbed individual whose possession by an alien entity is investigated by the narrator, creating a dynamic of clinical curiosity and horror.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

Joe Slater is a disturbed individual whose possession by an alien entity is investigated by the narrator, creating a dynamic of clinical curiosity and horror.

## In the story

### [Beyond the Wall of Sleep](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/beyond-the-wall-of-sleep)

A degenerate Catskill mountaineer brought to the institution after a murderous rampage; he experiences cosmic dreams and serves as a vessel for a cosmic entity.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/joe_slater
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters