The Author Enters Into His Own Death

Whenever one reviews a performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, it's de rigeur to talk about how he completely disappears into his role, and how he is John Proctor/Daniel Plainview/Abraham Lincoln. I can't help but feel this should apply not just to all actors, but to authors as well. Acting started in Ancient Greece with the performers donning masks - the actor was invisible, the mask was all that mattered. This should also be true of writers.

There's no way for an author to remain completely invisible; in this day and age, the author must make themselves a brand. Brian Eno perfected this in the late 90s, and even the lack of an image can become an image, e.g. Thomas Pynchon, or Daft Punk and their iconic robot costumes. All creators have their own style and idiosyncrasies as well - Emily Dickinson couldn't completely divorce her preoccupation with religion and death from her poetry, after all. Instead, I prefer to see the author as a midwife; they bring the work into the world, maybe even name it, but otherwise have on influence over it. Once a work is published, the author's role is done; they must now let their baby face the world.

As soon as a fact is narrated no longer with a view to acting directly on reality but intransitively... this disconnection occurs, the voice loses its origin, the author enters into his own death, writing begins. - Roland Barthes