Tun Kai Poh
Hero
Warning: Rant onWow, you’re right. I think it’s Paul‘s filmbook. Even refers to them as the Eyes of Ibad.
Still, the new film favors showing over telling. Or voice-overing.
"Show rather than tell" is a very Western-centric idea, which excludes writers from non-Western backgrounds who have to tell to explain what a teh tarik is, or why you have to tabik hormat when you visit your in-laws during Hari Raya.
And although the style wasn't created as a CIA plot to expand Western hegemony in English literature, the CIA literally did promote it in some sort of belief that it would oppose Communism. People assume that "show don't tell" is automatically a good thing because that was what was taught by institutions like the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
There are other modes of storytelling drawn from all over the world, which are just as valid as "show don't tell," like oral storytelling cultures and Dickinson's "tell it slant." People raised in the West tend to forget this.
Rant over
Last edited: