One of my campers a few weeks ago said he intends some day to write a book with sections in first, second, and third persons, because every elementary school English teacher is guaranteed to buy copies for their class.
You awake suddenly. It’s the middle of the night. Was there a noise? Perhaps. A flash of light? Yes, maybe. What was the source? Suddenly both light and noise explode and you realize that that’s what it was before, too. You recoil because it is much more terrifying awake than it was unconscious. You cringe, but realize that you cannot close your eyes or your ears–it is too jarring, too threatening. What is happening?
Okay, that’s crappy writing, but I think that it’s a good device for putting the 2nd person into a future, fantasy experience. Similarly it could be used to induce empathy around a situation, and such.
I’ve only rarely used the device because it’s hard to maintain, but there are times when it’s justified other than in the OP’s suggested ways.
Homestuck is told mainly in the second person. Initially the device is used like a role-playing game, but it soon becomes a way to jump into the point of view of different characters.
For example:
John receives a beta copy of a game on his birthday, and plays with three friends who also have it, causing the end of the world. It gets more complicated.
Metafiction.
Italo Calvino’s *If on a winter’s night a traveler * begins “You are about to start reading Italo Calvino’s *If on a winter’s night a traveler *…” and is about, sort of, the process of You reading.
The couple of times I wrote in second person, I found it super effective in conveying a sense of helplessness. Must have been all of those passive verbs.
Keith Roberts’ novel Molly Zero is written entirely in the second person present tense.
O
It is written that way, but “you” are a specific character that the author is asking the reader to inhabit. Not being, myself, a female Asian-American stock analyst, the device just became a surrogate for first or third person narrative, with plenty of third-person anecdotes to fill in the backstory.
One that I failed to finish because the second-person narrative – the primary character is talking to you and responding to your reactions – became too distracting was The Fall, by Camus. The story just was not enough to draw me in past the mode.
A couple of days ago, Daily Science Fiction published “Ten Wretched Things About Influenza Sedariis” (it will be posted on their web page next week), which is in the second person. It’s very effective, since it sounds like it’s a informational guide and does put the reaer into the shoes of the main character.