ABSTRACT
This chapter explores essential questions of authorship, control, and agency. It identifies present and future implications for interactivity, autonomy, and the construction of Second Lives. The chapter considers different types of text, including printed materials and virtual environments, to discuss the role of the participant in interacting with texts on screen and on page. It debates the relationship between participant, creator, and text, and considers the agencies which play a role in this relationship. In the form of learnt reading conventions, regulations are not always explicit when reading a novel. All literature is interactive—reading would not be possible without a level of interaction—but some literature, such as Hopscotch, draws attention to its interactivity in a deliberate manner; as a metafictional novel, it draws attention to the process of reading, the creation of writing, and the artifice of fiction. Fan fiction is a method of both extending, and reclaiming, the text for the reader.
