John William Waterhouse Waterhouse Narcissus painting

John William Waterhouse Waterhouse Narcissus paintingJohn William Waterhouse waterhouse Ophelia painting
authorship is one Stoker Giles or Giles Stoker -- whereabouts unknown, existence questionable -- who appears to have claimed in turn 1) that he too was but a dedicated editor, the text proper having been written by a certain automatic computer, and 2) that excepting a few "necessary basic artifices"* the book is neither fable nor fictionalized history, but literal truth. And the comput, the mighty "WESCAC" -- does it not too disclaim authorship? It does.

* The assumption of a first-person narrative viewpoint, we are told, is one such "basic artifice." The reader will add others, perhaps challenging their "necessity" as well.

Frankly, what we hope and risk in publishingGiles Goat-Boy is that the question of its authorship will be a literary and not a legal one. If so, judging from the fuss in our office these past months, the book affords more pregnant matter for controversy. Merely deciding to bring it out has already cost us two valued colleagues, for quite different