Does reading connect the reader in some way to the author?

Does reading connect the reader in some way to the author?

I sat and pondered this for a while. What do I really think? When I read a poem or a book do I consider myself connected with the author?

I would have to say that it depends on the genre. Take literary nonfiction for example, I know for sure that this reading is completely in tune with the author because the author is depicting exactly what happened to him. The author is painting a picture in my mind of his experiences and I therefore do feel connected with the author and picture the author in my mind as the character of the story. Even with poetry, I too often have the problem of separating the author from the speaker, and creating two separate entities. More often than not I see the speaker of the poem as the author, and read the poem as if this was happening or had happened to the author.

But let’s look at fiction. Fiction is different for me. With fiction I know things are “fake,” that this is just made up stuff, and when I read through a novel I am imagining and creating characters in my mind from the words of the story and it has no connection with the author at all. Even though I know that fiction can be based on true life events and the author can insert his own personality and experiences and twist them a bit in fiction, I still see only the text and not the author’s personality leaking into the story.

Should the text stand alone as is, just like I have processed fiction reading in my mind all these years? Should nonfiction and poetry be the same way? While I do think that reading the text just for its literary value sans outside means from the author, I think bringing in the life and personality of the writer into consideration brings a whole other understanding to the writing. Not to assume that the text is autobiographical by any means, but understanding about the author can make things in the text make sense or shed new lights on certain aspects of the text. So I think a balance of both incorporating and “ignoring” to a sense the author’s involvement in a piece of writing is good.