Byron was a Weird Guy

Dear Kira,

I am able to sympathize deeply with your struggles. Personally, knowing something unflattering about an author often ruins entire books for me. I'm with the formalists in that I try really hard not to let what I know about an author influence my opinion of their books.

Personally, I go out of my way to avoid learning anything about the authors of the books I read; I try not even to look at their pictures. Now, I realize that this is all a little ridiculous, but it's why I enjoy reading things written by dead people so much. Historical ambiguity is a beautiful thing. Anonymous or possibly non-existent authors are the best. For example, quite a few historians agree that Homer (Iliad and Odyssey dude) didn't actually exist. This is common of the great foundational texts of world literature such as the Ramayana, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enuma Elish, and the Old Testament. Even though I know that, at some point, someone sat down and wrote them, the absence of a clearly defined author gives the text a sort of genuineness that we don't get a lot in modern writing.

I personally have a lot of respect for people who write anonymously, to me, when you write/read something from an anonymous source, it's not being produced by any one person, it is coming directly from the culture.

Anyway, I'm getting off my soap box now. I don't mean to say that taking ownership of your writing is a bad thing. Actually (as you suggested), sometimes writing is made more interesting by your knowledge of the author's back story. For example, I'm pretty sure I would never have read any of John Green's books if I didn't watch his youtube videos. But I do have some issues with that, my concern, and my question to you, is that I like books because I like the author (or vice-versa). You and I both know a certain person who is absolutely obsessed with Lord Byron. But, sometimes I wonder if he likes Byron because he likes Byron or because he's just kind of a weird dude with an interesting biography (BUT ACTUALLY, BYRON WAS SUCH A WEIRD GUY). Also, the Penn State Library has a lock of Byron's hair in its collection, so that can't help the odd, fan boy culture.


I guess this is where I come back to your original question. I guess it's sort of a dangerous thing to think that you know an author personally. I mean, you know you have a problem when you consider stealing hair from the University in a half-baked attempt to clone your own Lord Byron. I'm not saying that weird authors aren't fun, but (and this could apply to rock stars and actors and politicians as well) do you think we like/dislike their work because we like them or because it's deserving of being liked?

Maria