Salvador Plascencia makes us aware of his role as the author in The People of Paper. He is not a separate entity from the text but is inside the text. Federico de la Fe always feels “the weight of a distant force looking down on him” and this turns out to be Saturn, the character Plascencia embodies (18). So not only are we aware of Plascencia as the author, but the characters themselves are aware of him. Salvador Plascencia gives himself a passive role however, because the characters only seem to think that Saturn is watching them, not controlling them. At time, Plascencia cannot even do this. The characters try to manipulate the text by living in lead shells, thinking only of the flowers, and finally overpowering Plascencia through their voices. We see this through Saturn’s text getting smaller and pushed to the corner of the page as Little Merced, Smiley, Federico de la Fe, and others tell their own stories. The characters break away from the convention of the novels by writing sideways, something we’ve already seen in House of Leaves. Little Merced even finds a way to hide her and other stories so that even we cannot see it with blocks of black ink.
I said that the characters over power Plascencia, but I can’t really say that’s correct. Plascencia gives the illusion that the characters have agency, and I think it serves as a way to show that the author is not always in control of the story. The story can go in different directions that the author may not have anticipated at first.
I also thought it was interesting to see that Salvador Plascencia commented on how much the author’s life influences the text. Liz and Cami are definitely not happy that they have become a part of the text. Liz does not like the fact Plascencia has turned her “into [his] Rita Hayworth,” making her out to be some bad person that he is telling everyone about (137). Cami feels exposed because all these people “say they know [her]” in more intimate ways than she would like (226). Whether these two women were actually a part of Plascencia’s life or just another aspect of his character as Saturn, it still affects the novel and comments on the fact that authors are not separate from the text but weave in and out of it.