Showing vs. Telling

This bears repeating. A comment from Dan on the misnomer of "show, don't tell" being a writer's maxim:

"Actually, that's a maxim for film. Writers can't 'show' you anything, although I get the point that certain authors could do more to create an active reading experience."

Spot on, Dan. Showing = Hemingway. Telling = Stephenson. Examples:

Hemingway: "Scott was angry. He knew his actions would bear consequences. Serious consequences. But that would all happen tomorrow. He took his gun out of its holster and shot Merle."

Stephenson: "Scott knew that as soon as he would pull the trigger of his Colt Peacemaker .45 caliber revolver, the reinforced spring-steel striking pin mounted on the back of double-action trigger mechanism would sail forward at a velocity of 1,662.9 feet per second, hitting the base of the copper bullet cartridge like a <insert a weak analogy involving food here>. The rapid burning of gunpowder, a powerful combination of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter inside the casing would produce a rapid expansion of gasses and push the lead projectile down the barrel. Tiny grooves inside the barrel would turn the bullet one and one-nineteenth times before it exited the end in an explosive rush of metal and smoke, giving the bullet a sharp spin to make it rotate faster than an attack helicopter's rotor blades and making it more accurate than a Japanese katana."

Showing versus telling. I don't think I have the strength to get the rest of the way through Snow Crash. I slogged through the entirety of Cryptonomicon, you bastard, and now I see that it wasn't just a fluke that you pushed 400 pages onto either side of an entire chapter dedicated to the physics of eating Cap'n Crunch cereal.