Description vs Presentation

[rayheinrich]

Good writing can 'tell', bad writing can 'show'. 'Telling'
isn't inherently better or worse than 'showing'. Besides;
no sentence, paragraph, etc. is ever all one or the other.

The 'show' metaphor is a weak one. Writing tells, images
show. A metaphor for a sunset isn't a description of a sunset,
isn't a painting of a sunset, isn't a photograph of a sunset,
isn't a sunset. If done well, they're beautiful; if done badly,
they're wretched (the gods, by the way, routinely flub sunsets).

"Show, don't tell" is such a massive cliché that people
are constantly floundering about for a catchy substitute.

In addition to "present, don't describe"; I've seen
"hint, don't hammer" and "allude, don't conclude".

I've never seen "nurse don't coerce", "induce don't deduce",
or "eschew the rhetorical, wax metaphorical"; but I suppose
that's only a matter of time.

People who make up or purvey these slogans (excepting myself)
should be cudgelled with a bludgeon; or bludgeoned with a cudgel;
or, preferably, both.


P.S. I SO love "eschew the rhetorical, wax metaphorical*"
that I hereby make it an exception.


*And yes, I'm aware it should be 'metaphorically'; but then
it wouldn't roll trippingly off the tongue. I've decided that
the grammatical error is an intended subtextual comment on
the lack of proper English often displayed by the sloganeers
who employ "show, don't tell" and other such statements.