"The Chromium Fence" is ascience fiction short story by American writerPhilip K. Dick, first published inImaginationmagazine in July 1955.[1]
The story is set in a future where political differences have been reduced to trivialities, the "purists" are pitted against the "naturalists". The purists wish to make the adoption of cosmetic changes (sweat glands removed, teeth fixed and so on) compulsory. The purist and naturalist mantra in this story is shown as one extreme manifestation of thebrain-washing. The central character, Don Walsh, seems the only sane man left and refuses to join either side. Eventually, however, he is forced to act and pays the ultimate price.
This story was never reprinted anywhere after its single appearance in the bottom-market magazineImagination, until the appearance of Dick's collected stories in 1987.
Dick's agency attempted to sell the story to theNew Yorker magazine by describing it as a 'New York story' set in the future.
