Pixel Heresy

[SwapBrain]

Yes, on the other hand Lovecraft is notoriously bad for violating one of the few commandments of writing; "Show, don't tell." In my opinion this is what kept him from being a truly great writer. See: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. When he gets it right, though, it is pretty great.

[thedaemon]

Yes, on the other hand Lovecraft is notoriously bad for violating one of the few commandments of writing; "Show, don't tell." In my opinion this is what kept him from being a truly great writer. See: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. When he gets it right, though, it is pretty great.

He is a truly great writer, in my opinion. There are no rules to writing, just snobs. That you require a particular style of reading material is 

The main thing about Lovecraft's writings and his main element is that there are things which we don't know/understand, and if we were to learn of these truths, it would be too much for our minds to comprehend and would drive us insane. The universe is so large and vast, we are but an insignificant grain of sand. The Old Ones aren't evil per se, they just operate on another level than we, such that we don't understand and they treat us as we would treat an ant or blade of grass. If you have any questions about Lovecraft I'd be happy to share more information. I have all of his stories collected and have some of his philosophical works and others.

[SwapBrain]

This is all that I will say, so as to avoid further derailing:

I have read the vast majority of Lovecraft and like him. In fact, I link to an online repository of his writing above.

However, read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell

if you have any other questions PM me.

[Rydin]

On a unrelated note, showing versus telling can be applied to video game design.

Take this discussion about Super Mario Bros. for NES:

Interestingly, in the very first portion of World 1-1, the developers designed it so that the a newcomer almost always gets a Mushroom. In the first level, there are blocks that the player goes under. A menacing Goomba  approaches the player, and instinctively the player jumps over it. By the time the player reaches the Goomba and jumps, they will hit a ? block above that would reveal a mushroom. The mushroom goes to the right, hits a pipe and comes towards the player. Since the mushroom resembles the Goomba, the player thinks to jump over it again. Doing this, however, will almost always lead the player to jump right into the Mushroom since after they jump they hit another block from above which causes them to come back to the ground and hit the mushroom. This was to teach players that Mushrooms were a positive thing in the game.

Compare that to current games where every tiny detail is explained ad nauseum throughout the entire game.