What is an author?

Whatever comes under the category of "author" depends on how you define the word. And how you define the word may depend on a number of things, such as how you think the majority of people define or use the word, or possibly how you see it to be the most useful to yourself.

This brings us to a deeper philosophical question: where do definitions come from? Do definitions emerge from usage of others (practicality), from the individual's preferences, or from the context of the statement?

The reason the question of definitions is relevant to the question of authorship is because different people have different opinions of the word "author." Hence, which definition does one pick?

Some say that an author has to be someone who has published a written work. Others say that an author can be someone who is published with something written, but does not have to have to have chosen to be published, such as Emily Dickinson. (Marianne Noble, http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&
inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=messiah&tabID=T001&searchId=R2&resultListType=
RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=
GALE%7CA70976325&&docId=GALE|A70976325&docType=GALE)
Still others say that an author can be anyone who has written anything (I, who post this right now, and you, who email your friends, are equally authors), and finally, there are those who believe that authors are those who create things (your sibling who made a lego spaceship is an author of that spaceship).

Our professor, Dr. Powers, told us in class today that the word "author" was never even applied to people who wrote until the printing press was created. "Author," therefore, carries with it a certain dignity. The first people referred to as authors were those who became published with documents that were important enough, and intelligent enough, to print. Thus, even when the term "author" is used metaphorically, it carries the flavor of dignity and sought-after writing.

No matter what words people use, they cannot deny that 1) people publish intentionally, 2) people become published unintentionally and that piece of writing still impacts its readers, whether the writer desires that or not, and 3) people create things. Thus, if a person limits "author" to the first instance, that does not nullify the existence of the other two instances. But it does disallow the previously described "dignity" from pertaining to those instances.

Personally, I like metaphors. And when people use a certain word metaphorically, I like to do that too. Hence, if someone uses "author" in a broader, metaphorical sense, I also widen my usage of the word to give it metaphoric value.

The film Waking Life (one of my favorites!) contains the following statement: "We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance where even our inabilities are having a roast." As one of my artistic and intellectual influences, this film describes everyone as a "co-author" of life. Though this is a much broader action than specifically "one who publishes writings," its usage of the metaphor is specific. It does not allow one to say "Hundai is the author of an amazing vehicle" or "I am the author of this sandwich." It requires a romance, an intimacy between the creator and the created, as there is an intimacy between the writer and the written. In the statement by Waking Life, the term is used to say that we are collectively creating the life we experience.

When the word "author" is used metaphorically, there needs to be a metaphoric transfer, a connection between the original meaning of author and the new connection. It can even be used in a joking manner--"I authored that fashion statement"--but the metaphor must still have a meaning (in the example, the connection between the metaphor and the original meaning is the pride and professionalism inherent in both printed writing and this alleged fashion).

No matter what the definition means to you, no doubt that others have and will continue to use the word metaphorically, and no doubt the meaning of this word, like the meaning of all words, depends on the context, tone, and intention of the statement.