Readers response to The Last Library Essay Example for Free

Readers response to The Last Library EssayThe narrative The Last Library, by A. K. Benedict is a collision between real life and fantasy where meaningful past treasures send word often be forgotten and disregarded in a debauched paced world. In a way it invokes thought about a current issue in northbound American society today, the progression of new technologies and how we fork out become dependent on these new technologies as a source of entertainment. Modern day culture has been immersed in a craze of technology allowing straightaway access to information and entertainment. Smart phones, tablets, social media sites, and all the vastinformation of the internet that is only clicks of a mouse away has caused people to forget the reveres that a library can hold. Much of Society has forgotten how to entertain itself through imagination by reading stories. The text is slightly ambiguous I feel, as though the author wants us to create our own meaningful interpretation of the sto ry.The Last Library is a narrative that critiques the idea of how modern day join American culture has seemed to have forgotten about the many wonders of past treasures. The story does this by focusing on the exaggerated view of a three-year-old girl, using fiction entwined with real life problems to help us as commentators to reflect on the magic places your imagination can take you when reading a book. Interpretation of the written word is shaped by the readers own experiences and steers each reader, ambiguously at times, towards a meaning which will disaccord for each reader as his or her mind interprets specific moments. The author puts forth clues in helping the reader to determine the implied reader of this text I would consider myself to be closer to the implied reader.The implied reader can be defined as the reader imagined by the text (Grinnell 21). I have lived in a time where libraries were the primary and often times the sole source for knowledge and entertainment, as am I part of modern society entrenched in our current time of modern technology. The Guides (Maggie) comment referring to the last library being Old exhibit. Its not interactive (Benedict 217) makes me reflect on how libraries have become obsolete in our current technological age because they argon not interactive in the waysmart phones and tablets allow a person to be.This quote demonstrates a specific feeling I can sympathize with where technology, because it is so interactive, has become the dominant source of information and entertainment. A readers own experiences shape the interpretation of the written word. In the story the young girl thinks to herself, Her mind is always full of stories, and now there are more outside her (Benedict 220).This makes me ponder my own childhood and all the wonderful books such as Harry Potter orold favorite The Saggy miry Elephant and all the magical stories from childhood that are treasures I will always hold inside and have helped shape who I became. The meaning of this story can seem vague at moments as the story is more fable than real life, but it does incorporate real life issues.We live in a fast paced world where progress dominates. Simple treasures are often passed over or forgotten for the sake of progress and money, and libraries are an endangered treasure. The Guides comment Its a rare event for the museum but they have tomake way for other last things. Thats progress (Benedict 221) when the books are to be destroyed enforces this thought of Out with the old in with the new, which is the meaning I would take from this story.This narrative The Last Library creates as sense of how North American culture tends to forget the past when seeking new and exciting things. The story focused on the library but also made reference work of other past things such as the Dodo or Cuckoo clock both things we now only see in amuseum or archival instances as their time and place in history have passed.The last museum in itself mentioned in this short story grips the imagination and conjures up wonder if one day will anyone care about the past? Works Cited Benedict, A. K. The Last Library. Paraxis 2011. Rpt. in Custom Course Materials ENGL 153. Ed. George C. Grinnell. Kelowna U of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, 2014. 217-224. Print. Grinnell, George C. Critical physical exercise Critical Approaches to Narratives English 153.