>then how to explain the endless insistence of the Toast of the Name
>from those who say it doesn't matter?
I don't know. But you know, I really don't care - let them toast, it if
makes them happy.
If there is a mirage called The Author between the Work and the Reader,
then by all means dispense with it - I find it as irritating as anyone.
But if rubbing it away leaves a big smear called the Author/s/ities
instead, I can't see what's gained.
I'm the first to admit this is a wholly personal response. But when I
write "Shakespeare", it's really shorthand for a corpus of amazing plays
and poems... responses to which can have nothing to do with the real
Shakespeare, whether or not he existed (how could it?) As I recall,
Pessoa's fascination was to do with Shakespeare's polymorphousness _in
the work_, not to do with his "name".
Best
Alison
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