Discussion of the lives of trees on Debbie Millman’s podcast reminds me of a 1930s pulp sci-fi story — I think it was by Edmond Hamilton — where the hero takes a drug that slows his metabolism to vegetable speed. He perceives a jungle rain forest as a savage arena where plants engage in mortal combat. Of course, this being a 1930s pulp sci-fi story, our hero has to venture into the rainforest to rescue a young woman, who I think has been kidnapped by racially stereotyped natives for vile pagan rites.
Update: According to Claude, the story is “Alien Earth,” by Edmond Hamilton, published in 1940. “The drug is called hanuti, a green, super-concentrated form of chlorophyll. A biologist named Andre takes it, and his mind slows enough that he can see the world of plants, a world nobody else experiences. A local shaman had given him the drug as a reward for stopping a plant blight. In the story’s slowed-down view, the jungle becomes a slow, savage battleground. Later the plants turn telepathically hostile.… "
Claude doesn’t mention the girl being rescued — maybe I’m misremembering.
And here’s a review on the Classics of Science Fiction blog — the reviewer loves the story:
“The opening line was just right, ‘The dead man was standing in a little moonlit clearing in the jungle when Farris found him.’ The dead man, described as a typical Laos tribesman, wasn’t entirely dead….” The reviewer says the story reminds him of Carlos Castaneda and resembles the work of J.G. Ballard.
You can read the Hamilton story on the Internet Archive.
And now I’m reminded of a friend who told me two or three years ago that he liked to browse old pulp magazines in the Internet Archive, particularly old horror magazines. He said he occasionally finds gems written by obscure writers who published two or three pieces and then disappeared, utterly forgotten.
