Why chickens have no myths: Walker Percy on language and man

It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it….1
Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from his troubled dreams and found that while he had not
been metamorphosed into a giant insect—what a story that would have made!—he had been
transplanted from his comfortable bed to the floor of what looked like a rain forest. All around
him were trees, or what looked like trees, with strange shapes and unrecognisable foliage. The
tree-like things stretched up to the sky—and what a sky! Purple instead of the normal blue and,
as Gregor saw when he reached a clearing, with not one but what looked like two suns!
Wherever Gregor was, it wasn’t Earth; it wasn’t even Prague. The forest was raucous with
sounds—an Amazonian cacophony of whistles, shrieks and jabberings. Suspended between
terror and exhilaration, Gregor began to explore his new environment. First things first—what
would he eat and drink? Was he in danger from attack by plants or animals? How would he
know what was a plant or an animal? Were there human beings on this planet or, if not human
beings, then rational beings of some kind or other? How would he know if there were any such beings on
this planet?