I have this vivid memory of visiting my cousin Kevin when I was ten. We were walking down the road either returning from an uncle’s house or headed to that uncle’s house. What’s most vivid is that as we walked dark clouds rolled in overhead. The uncle we were staying with walked ahead watching the sky telling my father of the dangers of forked lightning. Just as he finished speaking lightning flashed overhead, from cloud to cloud.

 

We were in Port St Lucie, Florida. The state was thought to be the Lighting capital of the world. Other than a particularly bad storm back in the Caribbean, this is the memory I go back to when I think of lightning. Last week when I mentioned the classics, my mind kept flashing back to lightning and Mary Shelley’s use of it to reanimate the day, well of electricity harnessed from Lighting, Frankenstein.

 

Then I became curious. How was lighting or electricity used in media?

 

Immediately my adolescent self, raised a hand and reminded me of my beloved X-men specifically, Storm. She is, but one of many fictional characters with the ability to control electricity.

 

Then I thought about how many books used Lightning or electricity as some form of weapon. Multiple authors use thunder and  lightning as a form of foreshadowing. Some use the lightning strike to gift their Hero/Heroine with paranormal abilities. (I would mention a book here ordinarily, but I can’t find the one I had in mind. Darn that cleaning surge I had a month ago.  Will update if I can find it.)

 

 So tell me do you have a favorite book that uses lightning or electricity as a literary device or as a weapon? Is it just something that you find interesting or do you notice it at all?