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Oct. 28th, 2019 12:09 amSincere question for anyone of a literary bent:
Who invented the "show don't tell" rule?
What publisher/editor/creative writing teacher decided this principle actually improved fiction?
When did it become wrong to actually TELL a fucking story?
When did writers become so terrified of exposition that they resorted en-masse to obfuscation?
Writers these days seem so obtuse I don't think they themselves know what's going on. . .
Once again, I come to the end of the story - and nothing has bloody well happened. I'm drawn in, I'm engaged, I'm absorbed, I'm intrigued, it's just getting going. . .and it's over. Done. Nothing at all has happened.
It feels like a school assignment. I'm supposed to scan the text and I'm supposed to find the clues and I'm supposed to connect the dots and I'm supposed to make sense of everything. In fact, I have to do so much of the work, what do I need the writer for?
Poe never bothered with that shit. "Ambiguity? Fuck that. You take from this what I want you take. Because I am Edgar Allen Poe, and you dear reader, are the merest of mortals. . ."
Maybe I should blame Henry James. James didn't care for Poe. Reading Henry James is like watching paint dry. James isn't worthy to cut Poe's toe-nails. Nor Ambrose Bierce's, nor HP Lovecraft. None of whom gave a rat's ass about showing as opposed to telling. There was never any doubt as to what happened in a Poe story. That never lessened its impact. On the contrary, reading Poe for the first time feels like a punch in the face, leaving a permanent bruise on the brain. There is a reason Poe is reread every year, has been for hundred of years since his death.
This shit I'm reading in "Best New Horror" or "Best Horror of the Year", which seems so allergic to actual storytelling - it will be forgotten tomorrow. Only my exasperation will remain. I will never pick up these stories again, never recommend them to anybody, never quote them, never use them. I've already forgotten the authors' names.
Who invented the "show don't tell" rule?
What publisher/editor/creative writing teacher decided this principle actually improved fiction?
When did it become wrong to actually TELL a fucking story?
When did writers become so terrified of exposition that they resorted en-masse to obfuscation?
Writers these days seem so obtuse I don't think they themselves know what's going on. . .
Once again, I come to the end of the story - and nothing has bloody well happened. I'm drawn in, I'm engaged, I'm absorbed, I'm intrigued, it's just getting going. . .and it's over. Done. Nothing at all has happened.
It feels like a school assignment. I'm supposed to scan the text and I'm supposed to find the clues and I'm supposed to connect the dots and I'm supposed to make sense of everything. In fact, I have to do so much of the work, what do I need the writer for?
Poe never bothered with that shit. "Ambiguity? Fuck that. You take from this what I want you take. Because I am Edgar Allen Poe, and you dear reader, are the merest of mortals. . ."
Maybe I should blame Henry James. James didn't care for Poe. Reading Henry James is like watching paint dry. James isn't worthy to cut Poe's toe-nails. Nor Ambrose Bierce's, nor HP Lovecraft. None of whom gave a rat's ass about showing as opposed to telling. There was never any doubt as to what happened in a Poe story. That never lessened its impact. On the contrary, reading Poe for the first time feels like a punch in the face, leaving a permanent bruise on the brain. There is a reason Poe is reread every year, has been for hundred of years since his death.
This shit I'm reading in "Best New Horror" or "Best Horror of the Year", which seems so allergic to actual storytelling - it will be forgotten tomorrow. Only my exasperation will remain. I will never pick up these stories again, never recommend them to anybody, never quote them, never use them. I've already forgotten the authors' names.
