use of "auteur"

[menthe]

While listening to the news the other day, I came across this use of "auteur" that I didn't know.

Il était l'auteur du meurtre.

Would we use author in English?

I think of author in English as something positive in the sense of creator, originator and so on of an admirable action.

For something negative like a murder, I think we'd say perpetrator or some other word with a negative connotation.

Anyone has any thoughts on this?

[Hectorsdad]

…he was the author of his own demise….

[Loiseau]

It always annoys me when newspaper reports say "…il s'est fait attaquer…", as if somebody would set out to get themselves attacked.

[Debbiere]

An interesting use of the word. In fact, this is logical, and the emotional connotation for the word "author" probably cannot be applied

[menthe]

On 12/01/2023 at 22:24, Hectorsdad said:

…he was the author of his own demise….

You could equally say he was the author of his own success.

So Debbiere is right to point out that this is a case of having to ignore the connotation.