Philosophers and writers may use author-surrogates to express their personal positions, especially if these are unpopular or run counter to established views.
Novelist Michael Crichton used his character Ian Malcolm to express views on catastrophic system failure in his novel Jurassic Park.
"[5] Colombian author and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez appears near the end of his own book, One Hundred Years of Solitude as a minor character in the novel.
Fan fiction critics have evolved the term Mary Sue to refer to an idealized author surrogate.
[6] The term 'Mary Sue' is thought to evoke the cliché of an author who uses writing as a vehicle for the indulgence of self-idealization, to create a character that is so competent or perfect that it lacks verisimilitude.