Show vs Tell

I think it's just a matter of writing fashion. Fables seem to use a lot of telling, editorializing: "For you see, dear reader, Jack's uncle was a wicked man..."
There seemed to be a lot of info-dump exposition, too: "Jack was a simple farm boy who lived with his mother alone, for his father had died."

Nowadays, readers seem to prefer getting to judge for themselves: "Jack's uncle kicked the puppy, then roared with laughter at its whimpering."
-- well, okay, maybe a little more morally ambiguous than that... but we'd still like concrete examples, evidence that he's wicked, or she's kindly, or he's in a certain mood, or she's keeping a secret, or whatever.

Info-dump exposition seems to be losing favor, for how abstract it can be (we don't get a mental image to become engrossed with, so I guess it feels like studying) and how it halts the flow of the story. Distributed exposition seems to be the way to go, but that would take much longer to write inclusions of Jack living in a farm with his widowed mother.

Like all writing advice, though, I believe that when the right paragraph comes... it will be total bunk. Gail Levine demonstrated it best, I think, when she asserted that we have to both show and tell.
Ella Enchanted begins with, That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse upon me. She meant to bestow a gift. That's telling.
The author re-wrote that bit using only showing, but while that gives us a clear image and knowledge of some details (like baby Ella was in her mother's arms when the fairy cast that spell, and that the fairy wore gloves) we lose the more important, more abstract, details-- such as that Lucinda was a fool, and her gift was a curse.

I disagree. It's prose, not a radio drama or a stageplay. If you only show when they're talking it might as well be telling.

 

There has to be a balance of showing and telling in a story. Through telling (exposition/narrative) we can get a detailed background on a character or event in a few words. Showing usually takes much longer. The awesomeness of showing however is it makes the scene/charactor more real then by telling, it has dramatic effect.

 

This is one way in which filmmakers have it much easier than we do. They're all 'show'.

 

Not really. I've seen many movies with characters spouting long, expository lectures, and with Captaiin Obvious dialogue and flat acting.

 

I wish newer star wars movie took the show and not tell approach, if possible!

 

Ugh, yeah, I hate that. I guess the mistake is made in either medium, just seems a little easier to make in literature to me.

 

Ultraviolet was one like that...long scenes of Milla just telling things, instead of it being shown...