Here is an example from Ian McEwan's Atonment...
She lit up [her cigarette] as she descended the stairs to the hall, knowing that she would not have dared had her father been at home/ He had prcise ideas about where and when a woman should be seen smoking: not in the street, or any other public place, not on entering a room, not standing up, and only when offered, never from her own supply--notions as self-evident to him as natural justirce. Three years among the sophisticates of Girton had not provided her with the courage to confront him. .... In fact, being at odds with her father about anything at all, even an insignificant domestic detail, made her uncomfortable, and nothing that great literature might have done to modify her sensibilities, none of the lessons of practical criticism, could quite deliver her from obedience.
Pardon any funny typos, I was copying straight from the book.
This is all telling, and an infodump, but it is so well written and makes for great characterization, but it is also an argument against show-don't-tell. It could be shown that she is uncomfortable confronting her father simply by having him jump out at her as she walks through the halls (haha, sounds funny!) so, why then, is it alright for him to tell it? Is there any point where telling is OK, and when is it, and when am I allowed to do so....? Does anyone see how I am so confused?
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