Some inner illumination. It is worrying that the commander of the voyage, M. de Bougainville, is an old sexual rival. You see,'' Brooks is saying, ''I told you what novels do. Since ''show, don't tell,'' is the first lesson any writing teacher has to offer, he must be congratulated on his effort. But again, as any teacher knows, this simple principle is almost never followed.
People have the strangest ideas of what ''showing'' means.
Putting quotation marks around a slab of exposition is believed to convert it to ''dialogue'' and qualify it to be part of a novel. It is hard to know how to react when a writer of Brooks's sophistication falls into such traps. Dismay is a good start. In its early pages, ''World Elsewhere'' is pleasant reading. Brooks's prose is graceful and assured, and he is a fine judge of pace.