{"id":541,"date":"2008-08-21T20:49:08","date_gmt":"2008-08-22T04:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/?p=541"},"modified":"2008-08-21T20:50:36","modified_gmt":"2008-08-22T04:50:36","slug":"lovva-the-harp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/21\/lovva-the-harp\/","title":{"rendered":"Lovva the Harp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I finished the final round of revisions on <em>Hylozoic <\/em> this week, and my editor, David Hartwell, approved them.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images\/harp8harp.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> As it happens, the novel has an alien character named Lovva, who takes on the shape of a small harp.  Earlier this year, the harpist <a target=\"blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.magnatune.com\/artists\/fulton\">Cheryl Ann Fulton <\/a>lent me a small harp for inspiration while I was writing about Lovva.  Today I took the harp back to Cheryl in Berkeley.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images\/harp8vine.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a passage from <em>Hylozoic <\/em>where Lovva transforms herself into a harp, watched by my hero Jayjay, in the attic of Hieronymus Bosch&#8217;s house.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The shapeshifting alien pressed her arms together and stretched them out to make the crosspiece.  Her belly flattened; her head retreated into her neck.  Her legs swung up and fused to make a fluted front column.  Her toes connected with her fingers. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images\/jonakedlady.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Buds formed along the median of her chest and belly, sending luminous tendrils up to the crosspiece, forming the strings.  Her green skin glittered and turned gold.  And now the painting on the soundbox began taking shape.  Jayjay got in on this, guiding the harp as she transformed her skin into layers of oil paint. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images\/coopwalkers.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When she was done, two pale lovers stood nude in a meadow that seethed with black lizards and tiny birds.  Beside them was a pale blue demon fingering a tiny, gold harp that was shaped just like Lovva.  The lizards wore little hats, flying fish drifted in the sky, the trunks of the trees had ears, and hints of moisture glistened on the lovers&#8217; thighs. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images\/harp8gutter.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p> \u201cSee the little harp the demon in the picture holds?\u201d\u009d said Bosch, bending close to Lovva\u2019s sound board.   \u201cThe little harp should bear a painting that\u2019s a copy of my painting on this big harp.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly think the changes,\u201d\u009d chimed the harp.  \u201cAnd Ill make my skin into the proper colors.\u201d\u009d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images\/boschvine3.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Soon Lovva\u2019s soundbox bore an image of a demon with a harp, but now the demon\u2019s harp bore an image of a smaller demon with a harp, and this tiny harp bore a yet-smaller picture of a hellish harpist, and so on&#8212;iterating down to levels that the naked eye could barely see.  By way of capping the series, Bosch set a tiny triangle of ivory white at the vanishing point.  The eye of God. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finished the final round of revisions on Hylozoic this week, and my editor, David Hartwell, approved them. As it happens, the novel has an alien character named Lovva, who takes on the shape of a small harp. Earlier this year, the harpist Cheryl Ann Fulton lent me a small harp for inspiration while I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}