ABSTRACT
Upon reading the 1950s science fiction story by Philip K. Dick, Piper in the Woods, I was struck by the phenomenon of humans becoming plants at the center of Dick’s plot. The story is set in the undefined future. It opens with a psychologist, Dr. Henry Harris, who is challenged with the task of diagnosing and curing a service member, Corporal Westerburg, who “thinks he is a plant.” Corporal Westerburg had been serving at the new check station on Asteroid Y-3. But Westerburg was suddenly returned to his home base because he was not behaving “normally.” He had stopped working altogether and was spending his days sitting outside in the sun, from dawn to dusk.
