No, you're right, of course--- the editor character doesn't work. The author, yes. I can easily imagine Anna taking her 9 months bereavement leave, working on and off on what she tells herself is just a legitimate article on ethics and self-driving cars, not speaking to anyone, getting further and further away from legitimate academic writing. But then in real life, the editor would get halfway through marking it up, shove it aside, and write a personal letter instead. I suppose the trick in Pale Fire, which is the first other thing I can think of that uses this conceit, is to have the writer be relatively sane and the editor completely unhinged. But I liked it anyway, even if the trick doesn't completely work.