Maltese is fairly unique in that she adores fandom, and makes her living from commentating on it and creating it - she's a performer, amongst other things - and also still being part of it. She gets why and how we interact with texts.

Yes, the constant question as to whether Shakespeare actually wrote some/most/any of his plays. Either way, there's no question that Romeo and Juliet the starcrossed lovers trope, for example, existed as an earlier story in one or more cultures well before Shakespeare put quill to paper.

You're welcome :D It just got posted at inclusive_geeks where some people are 'meh, mainstream discovers fanfic again' but I see this as more thoughtful and positive than most articles preceding it which focus on fanfic writers as the 'other' and get hung up on the sexual aspect - you'd think there was no porn or erotica outside of fanfic reading some of those articles :P