I spent most of yesterday in the Bodleian. Got some weird looks, since several of my required reading books for this session of Mythology in Literature are Harry Potter books. I then attended a drinks party with other OPUS students, our advisers here, and some of our tutors. After the party, I went to a debate at the Oxford Union. It was the firs debate I've attended, and was really interesting, though a lot of people said it wasn't the best debate. The proposition was "Democracy is essential for human progress" and the opposition made a much, much more persuasive case. Several Members of Parliament, some journalists, but mostly just Oxford faculty and students debating, and I could've joined in too, which was neat.
Tonight, I went to a very different kind of debate. I had been working hard all day, so decided to join the Tolkien Society's primaries for the next President of Middle Earth. Tonight was the primary for Free Peoples. The debate was hilarious, the characters each stayed in character with Bombadil rhyming, Treebeard needing to be woken and Pippin continuously eating and dancing on the table. They took questions such as what to do with Orcs, and should they be referred to by the insulting name "Orcs". There were "commercials" and a final vote, in which Galadriel won. I had voted for Treebeard and his green party, since Galadriel's platform was a bit frightening at times.
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