The ongoing issue about Hypertext
and Interactive
Fiction changing the role of the reader and allows him or her to
participate in authorship, is controversial because many scholars believe they
are just given the allusion that they are participating and not being given real
freedom.

Scholars like, Landow
argue that Hypertext blurs the lines between writer and reader because of the
nature of hypertext. The reader
has to make choices when cruising through a work in Hypertext form, therefore
he or she becomes active. With Interactive Fiction, even though the author
creates the same ending, some readers may or may not find the solution or
answer and they take away a very different experience than the person who was able
to navigate to the “end” of the work. Hypertext and Interactive Fiction, both
allow the reader to interact and most importantly create the path that they
want to continue going to get to the stories plot. The plot of a story does not
necessarily needs to be at the end of a work, like with hypertext.

With this said, I will argue that Digital Literature, like
Non-linear story telling (Hypertext) and Interactive Fiction turn the reader
into a collaborating author by making him or her piece content together throughout
the whole piece and thereby create the plot and thus participate in authoring
the story, regardless if they are not writing it themselves or not.