THE DEEP ONES: "The Feather Pillow" by Horacio Quiroga

"The Feather Pillow" by Horacio Quiroga

Discussion begins on April 21, 2021.

First published in the July 13, 1907 issue of Caras y Caretas magazine.



ONLINE VERSIONS

https://www.shortstoryproject.com/story/the-feather-pillow/
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606301h.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?583409

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

Dracula's Brood: Neglected Vampire Classics
100 Creepy Little Creatures
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature

MISCELLANY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacio_Quiroga
https://www.historiahoy.com.ar/horacio-quiroga-la-tragedia-y-las-letras-n1638
https://tinyurl.com/3xxcvckt

Calling this a "vampire classic" seems a bit off, unless one thinks a common tick counts as a vampire.

I rather liked it, anyway, though one might think that in a world where such creatures are "often" found in feather pillows the doctors might have thought of the possibility.

Yeah, "not rare"? Thankfully a fantasy!

I thought the melodrama was a bit much, but as it was a quick read, not onerous.

I liked this story. This is a story in that tiny slot of the weird fiction spectrum between natural and almost supernatural horror.

The monster here hides in an accoutrement of luxury. It's only when Alicia's delirious, her rational mind inactive, that a part of her senses the menace. Civilization here seems to atrophy survival instincts.

I wonder if we are not to see Alicia as sort of a bird metaphorically. Not a bird in a gilded cage, but in an oppressively white house. Jordan shows her little affection.

The heavy pillow was a nice touch though it seems that bird-eating Goliath tarantulas, the world's largest spiders, never get to more than a half pound in weight.

I was reminded of the death of Lucy in Dracula - it's the motif of danger lurking in the very heart of what should be safe domesticity as much as the common theme of blood-sucking, I think. Although the giant tick makes it a cryptid story rather than a vampire story, I would have thought.

Unaccountably lost track of this story, and just got to it this morning.

The anaemia is melodramatic in the telling, but I suspect not for the characters: the physicians, for example, never mentions blood or blood loss. If he had, I would blame him for not trying an infusion. But he sees only weakness. (Now, why no-one examined the bedclothes or Alicia more carefully ....)

I was reminded of MR James in the servant's visceral reaction to the pillow: "It's very heavy." Like the touch of a hairy appendage beneath the pillow in that James story.

As stated in >4 RandyStafford:, I liked the blend of naturalism and supernatural. As I've mentioned before, I tend to grasp after allegorical readings in such cases, though I don't think any is needed. The symbolism of the marriage and the anaemia are evident enough.

>6 elenchus:

Were infusions medically feasible in 1907? I thought they were science fiction in Stoker's Dracula.

Ah, good point. I didn't know so I looked it up: evidently a boy successfully transfused sheep's blood in 1667 and survived.

But the point stands: not a common practice. While leeching was common, even adding fluids not a reliable practise at that point.

This story actually creeped me out quite a bit. It starts out with a bit of mystery as tends to be expected in supernatural things, but then switches abruptly into something frighteningly mundane. You can argue against the existence of "vampires" but not against a tick, and a really big tick is closer to reality than I would like.