I’ve noticed this before, but it struck me anew this morning.

Authors have authority.

Those with authority are authors in some way, too.

It puts an interesting spin on the whole Barthes of the author is dead thing, I think – an idea I have never subscribed to anyway – and also means an interesting way of thinking about the place of authors and how we think about them and who can/should be ‘an author’.

I have no answers to the questions raised, but I like pondering the issues.