"Piper in the Woods" is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1953 in''

Imagination Imagination is the production of sensations, feelings and thoughts informing oneself. These experiences can be re-creations of past experiences, such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes ...

'', and later in'' The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick''. It has since been republished several times, including in

Beyond Lies the Wub "Beyond Lies the Wub" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was his first published genre story, originally appearing in ''Planet Stories'' in July 1952.Damien Broderick, ''Transrealist Fiction: Writing in th ...

in 1988.

Plot summary

Henry Harris, an army doctor at a garrison on Earth is puzzled by a case of a soldier who returns from the asteroid Y-3, and claims that he's a plant. When several more men return from Y-3, each thinking they're a plant, Harris travels to the asteroid to solve the puzzle. He soon finds out that the soldiers claim that a certain indigenous people on the asteroid called "Pipers", who live in the woods, made them realize that they're plants. Harris ventures into the woods and discovers that Pipers do not exist, they were merely invented by the soldiers to cope with the pressure of their jobs. The soldiers relaxed by simply turning into plants, or their minds thought so. Harris returns to earth and contemplates all the work that lies ahead of him. He unpacks his suitcases, which, rather than carrying clothes, contain soil from Y-3. Harris lays the soil on the ground, lies in it like a plant, and goes to sleep.

External links

* * * * Short stories by Philip K. Dick 1953 short stories Works originally published in Imagination (magazine) {{1950s-sf-story-stub