I know that authors have always been individuals, not secluded from the world (Steinbeck and Lee notwithstanding). But at the same time, the job of the reviewer and the job of the critic are both made much ea those two people aren't likely to find themselves in the middle of an argument with the author about the validity of the review or the analysis (and for neither the reviewer nor the critic is the primary customer the author). And as for fans, well, there is a certain happiness in mindless (or mindful!) fangirling, but that's fairly difficult to do when the distance between author-as-public-figure and author-as-fellow-human dissolves. Maybe that's a good thing.