MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Namekuseijin · 11-29-2011, 02:33 PM

It's precisely the telling which makes it worthwhile. I bet Cthulhu isn't any more horrific than anything you'd find in movies now. But telling that only looking at it would drive you mad is a potent narrative device that does a far better job than showing a description of the creature that obviously won't drive you mad (or probably will).

Literature is oral medium recorded on paper, there's always the figure of the narrator "telling a story" and the story unfolds from his POV. Leave "show don't tell" to visual media like movies or games, which is why no movie villain will ever be as nightmarish as Cthulhu, since we can see it's just some bad makeup or clear cheesy CG.

11-29-2011, 02:33 PM	#5
Namekuseijin affordable chipmunk Posts: 1,290 Karma: 9863855 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Brazil Device: Sony XPeria ZL, Kindle Paperwhite	It's precisely the telling which makes it worthwhile. I bet Cthulhu isn't any more horrific than anything you'd find in movies now. But telling that only looking at it would drive you mad is a potent narrative device that does a far better job than showing a description of the creature that obviously won't drive you mad (or probably will). Literature is oral medium recorded on paper, there's always the figure of the narrator "telling a story" and the story unfolds from his POV. Leave "show don't tell" to visual media like movies or games, which is why no movie villain will ever be as nightmarish as Cthulhu, since we can see it's just some bad makeup or clear cheesy CG. Last edited by Namekuseijin; 11-29-2011 at 03:17 PM.