Emilia Wright's Academic Salon — August 20th, 1893
He had not expected such treachery from an unassuming widow. This question could not be classified as anything other than treachery, in his opinion: it was a landmine. There were women out demonstrating for the vote right now, probably, and there were conservative men huddled in their parlors all over England swearing they'd never have it, and here he was in Emilia Wright's house being asked for his opinion on the matter. There were no good opinions on the matter, he knew. Whatever he said could and would be used against him in the court of public opinion. Had Oz been foolish to come here in the first place? He knew that her son had announced a bid for Minister, of course, but he'd heard they were estranged; he hadn't expected her to be the one to wield the knife and deal the death-blow to his own Ministerial ambitions. This was supposed to just be a good opportunity to rub elbows with the academically inclined and show off how intelligent he was. Now she'd asked what he thought of women's suffrage, and he felt as though he might as well throw in the towel on the whole election.
Could he get out of the conversation without providing a real answer? He'd equivocated on plenty of issues that other people had asked him about so far, giving bland pleasant answers that contained no actual policy opinions. Was it possible to do this here as well? (How many people were within earshot? He hadn't taken notice and he didn't want to look around now; it would give away that he was nervous about answering).
"One must consider the larger question," Oz said, feeling out his answer as he went and gradually finding his footing. "Who do we trust to make informed decisions about the future of our country?" This was good, he thought; a dog-whistle that would let the conservatives hear and of course we don't trust women while the liberals might hear so I'm open to the conversation, which was about as ideologically daring as he wanted to be.
Could he get out of the conversation without providing a real answer? He'd equivocated on plenty of issues that other people had asked him about so far, giving bland pleasant answers that contained no actual policy opinions. Was it possible to do this here as well? (How many people were within earshot? He hadn't taken notice and he didn't want to look around now; it would give away that he was nervous about answering).
"One must consider the larger question," Oz said, feeling out his answer as he went and gradually finding his footing. "Who do we trust to make informed decisions about the future of our country?" This was good, he thought; a dog-whistle that would let the conservatives hear and of course we don't trust women while the liberals might hear so I'm open to the conversation, which was about as ideologically daring as he wanted to be.
MJ is the light of my life <3