Do we really need him...
If something or someone is to be important, he or it must have a function. But what is the function of the author? Doe he read the story out to the reader? Does he explain the ambiguous portions to the reader? What exactly does the author do? Basically nothing. He puts marks on paper and that's about it. He doesn't even explain what those marks mean. For example, if I wrote this in chinese, I'm sure that even it were to be about how to read chinese, the non-chinese literate would not understand. You understand? So the author, other than putting marks on paper, is really redundant.