[wao]

What's wrong with having a good backstory if you just look at it as one of the other arching plots of the book? Don't think of it as background, because if they're actively narrating it then it's foreground, isn't it? It's only very annoying if it cuts into a very exciting part of the current plot playing - and doesn't fit in well (unlike for example in Rurouni Kenshin where the "backstory" was cut into the Jinchuu arc, but it cut in nicely and made things that happened after that more understandable.). But then it's not just limited to backstory. ANYTHING that cuts into stuff badly is bad. Like for example you throw in another arc altogether (that is not backstory).