Unseen, Unsaid, Understood: Ancient Art vs. Modern Fiction

At one time, my sister was semi-obsessed with Egypt. She's the one who educated me on frontality, which depicts an artistic subject from the front (obviously), even when his pose is more conducive to a side view. Try to imitate the guy's pose to the left, and you'll see how unrealistic it is.

"It's pretty funny," my sister said. "It's like, if we can't see both his shoulders, he must not have two shoulders. If we can't see his belly button, he must not have one."

Ridiculous, right?

However, in fiction, some authors seem drawn to frontality, too. Nothing (not even cutesy character names) makes me put a book down faster than this. Frontality in fiction is the opposite of subtext. The opposite of subtlety. It seems to be most obvious in dialogue.

Real people don't say everything they mean, especially when emotions are high or when conversing with someone they've known a long time. The most effective, most beautiful dialogue in fiction is the stuff that doesn't tell all, doesn't spoonfeed.

Here's an example, from a TV show that shall remain nameless. I'll start with my paraphrased version, featuring lots of awful frontality.

"When I was twenty-two, I was playing minor league ball. I was pretty good at it, and all that potential fame and money went to my head. So when I had the opportunity to make some more money by throwing a few games, well, it was the wrong thing to do, but I did it anyway."
"I see."

"But when I got called up to the majors, it hit me just how wrong it was to be doing this. I told the man I'd never do it again. He told me I wasn't allowed to say that to him, and he proved it." 

"I don't understand what you mean by that. Care to explain?"

"I was threatened by phone calls and a car that followed me home a few nights. Finally, when I wouldn't give in, my girlfriend was murdered, shot and left in an alley. After hardly any investigation, the cops decided it was a mugging that went bad. They closed the case, stopped looking. I argued, but no one listened, because I didn't have any proof to tie the man to her murder."
"I'm sure this event had long-term effects on you."
"Yes. I realized that this kind of thing happens every day. People lose their lives and justice is never served. I could never get justice for my girlfriend, but maybe I can get justice for others. So I put my baseball bat away and became an officer of the law."

You might be laughing, but I bet you've read published novels or watched films with dialogue exactly like this. The reader/viewer has no opportunity to discover, to put pieces together, to feel smart. Worse, any emotional power this scene could have gets buried under a tell-it-all avalanche.

Then we have the real TV script.

"When I was twenty-two, um, I was playing minor league ball. And I threw a few games."

"For money?"

"Yeah. Then I got called up to the majors, and all that stopped. The guy I did it for didn’t let it go so easy."

"Meaning?"

"Some guys threatened me at first. And then my girlfriend was, um … The cops said it was a mugging that went bad. And … That’s--that’s how I went from playing a game to being a cop."

Dialogue like this makes me keep reading. So much isn't said, but I know it all, and I feel it all.

Your turn, fellow readers. Is subtlety (or lack thereof) something you notice while reading? If so, recommend us an author or a book that resists frontality and embraces subtext.