THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.2 Modernismo and its Masters: Darío and Quiroga The Avatar in Panamaof adjectives, writing under the impulse of emotion, and recommendsthe story should interest the characters about whom one writes, and notnecessarily the reader, because interesting the reading audienceshould never be a primary consideration. 43 This unity of effect to whichhe aspired had been brought to light previously by Poe in his criticaldiscussion on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales. 44As for his own literary masters, Quiroga admitted he was mostheavily influenced by Maupassant, Dostoevsky, Poe, and Kipling: “singénero de duda provengo de estos hombres”. 45 The most noteworthywas Poe with whom he also shared a fascination with death and themacabre and whom he later declared was “el único autor que yo leía.Ese maldito loco había llegado a dominarme por completo”. 46 Poe’sinfluence is apparent in Quiroga’s narrative and Peter Beardsall claimsthat the morbid aspects in Quiroga’s fiction “may be said to derive fromthe Decadentism incorporated into Latin America via modernismo. Inmore specific terms, they stem from Quiroga’s early interest in sadomasochismand his absorption of influences from Edgar Allan Poe”. 47Vampirism was a fundamental theme of decadentismo and modernismoand the topic was well exploited by Quiroga in “El almohadón deplumas” and two stories entitled “El vampiro” (1911, 1927). 48 In “Elalmohadón de plumas”, Alicia is the victim of an insect-like creaturewhich drains the blood from her temples through her pillow every night.She manifests various symptoms including the sensation ofasphyxiation: “Tenía siempre al despertar la sensación de estardesplomada en la cama con un millón de kilos encima” (74). 49 When theparasite is revealed the credibility of its vampire-like qualities isheightened by Quiroga’s intimation about the perpetrator’s nature:“Durante el día no avanzaba su enfermedad, pero cada mañanaamanecía lívida en sincope [sic] casi. Parecía que únicamente denoche se le fuera la vida en nuevas olas de sangre” (74). Finally, the43 Pedro G. Orgambide, Horacio Quiroga: El hombre y su obra. (Buenos Aires:Stilcograf, 1954) 130-131.44 Poe, “On the aim and the technique of the short story”, What is the Short Story?Eugene Current-García, Walton R. Patrick, eds. (Chicago: Scott, Foreman, 1961) 5-15.45 Peter R. Beardsall, Quiroga: Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (Valencia:Grant, 1986) 20.46 Horacio Quiroga, Horacio Quiroga: Cuentos escogidos. ed Jean Franco (Oxford:Pergamon, 1968) 4.47 Beardsall, Quiroga: Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte, 44.48 The vampire superstition was allied to that of the Incubus and Succubus --nocturnalvisitors of the female and male respectively described as lewd demons that lean onchests and violate their victims. Jones 125.49 “El almohadón de plumas”, Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte, cuarta edición,(Babel: Buenos Aires, sin fecha) 71-76. (74). This is the original form of the title; otherlater versions have the singular pluma.106