Should A Writer Be Invisible?

Lemony Snicket is an author who relies on invisibility. Daniel Handler constructed this author – basing the name loosely on Jiminy Cricket – even giving him false biographies in each of the books from ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. However, he alludes to the character of Snicket within the stories. This is a technique he uses to make himself more appealing and mysterious to the children that read his books. But this invisibility is manufactured. It is not what Roland Barthes would describe as ‘death of the author’ – because the author is fictional. Handler, as well as writing characters for the stories, also builds an author for them. It is quite the opposite of the author’s death. It is his creation.

It is Snicket’s warning in ‘The Bad Beginning’ that alerted me to the fact that Snicket wasn’t real. How many authors actively discourage children from reading their books? ‘There is nothing to be found… in these books but misery and despair’ reads the blurb of this book. As an adult, I can realise that this is a clever technique, but can easily imagine a child being confused and therefore intrigued.

However, authors don’t have to make themselves invisible. Why should they have to? They should be as visible as they care to be. Handler made himself invisible in order to make Snicket appear more real to the reader, but this was his choice. An author is as much a part of the book as the characters themselves – (or in the case of Snicket, actually is a character.)