Otep Shamaya, for a couple of years now, has been one of my absolute favorite musicians, and when I discovered that she was also a writer (beyond writing song lyrics, that is), I had to get my hands on one of her books. Quiet Lightning on the Noisy Mountain is definitely a wise starting point for someone looking to read Otep's work for the first time because it is almost like a sample platter, a conglomerate of many different genres from blog posts, short stories, and even fairytales (of which there are two, located at the very end of the book). Otep is a brilliant writer, and one of my absolute favorite aspects of her writing is her vivid use of alliteration (consonant sounds being repeated more than once in close proximity): "We've tasted the divinity of music in clubs stuffed with bodies and thick clouds of methane, where wanton women beg for liberation and brave souls burn with pride, busted bones and bloody clothes, through a sea of limbs and lips, hungry eyes, fists in the air, these fashionistas, these rogues, rebels, the willing weird, revered friends, lovers, and anonymous apostles, untied and united, seek communion, consumption, and corruption in a quick breath of our sweet lucidity” (Shamaya 104). One of my favorite stories is titled "The Fourth Reich" and is easily one of the most unusual stories that I have ever read, as it tells the story of Adolf Hitler being resurrected as a flower. Never before have I read such a story, especially since Otep somehow manages to vividly describe how it would feel if one of us suddenly found ourselves existing as a flower; the description is so vidid that one would suspect that Otep has experienced the sensation herself. (This is a true sign of a brilliant writer.) Many of Otep's stories feature the same plot/theme - women warriors exacting revenge on oppressors, especially male ones in patriarchal positions. Such stories are brutally bold and harrowingly haunting, and while I do love such stories, I also cannot help but adore the fairytale near the end of the book titled "Brother Blue," as it is a child-friendly story featuring no violence at all and delivering a lesson about how important that it is to value and respect diversity. (Otep's ability to go from writing a violent thriller to writing a charming children's fairytale is indicative of her eclectic ability as a writer.) My only complaint with Quiet Lightning on the Noisy Mountain is that many pieces have not been proofread and consequently feature a number of grammar errors and/or typos, but I can't allow that to bother me too much because she does, in a preface to the book, acknowledge this: "Forgive any spelling or grammatical errors you may uncover," she asks. "This is pure, uncut ME. Otep in the raw – if you will." Otep is as brilliant of a writer as she is a musician, and I am looking forward to reading more of her work in the future.
