THE BROWN dailyvol. cxxii, no. 98 heraldMONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 since 1891 INSIDE Poll: Majority plan to vote liberal in home states Page 2 By SONA MKRTTCHIAN during his first term. Do you plan on voting in the upcoming election? Meet the author SENIOR STAFF WRITER Michael Tesler, an assistant pro- No, I do not plan on voting Check out The Herald’s Q& A fessor of political science who is 5.5% with author Lois Lowry A Herald poll conducted in October teaching POLS 1120: “Campaigns I am unsure if I am found that 65.6 percent of respon- and Elections” this semester, said voting dents said they planned to vote for this support for Obama matched 6.1% President Obama this Tuesday, while up with his prediction that students 16 percent of students reported that would support Obama over Romney they did not plan to vote, and only 7.1 by a margin of at least four to one. percent said they planned to support “Brown would support whoever the Page 5 Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Democrat is in a very strong fashion,” No, I am not A majority of students — 62.6 per- he said. eligible to vote Yes, and I am registered in Yale shutout cent — said they plan to vote and are “Brown attracts a more liberal 15.1% another state The Bears shut out Yale for registered in their home states. Only student body,” Tesler said, adding 62.8% the first time since 1949 10.6 percent of students reported that young adults hold political be- Yes, and I am planning to vote in Rhode Island. liefs that are statistically attributable registered in Page 11 “I’m not too surprised that we to “socialization.” In his class of more Rhode Island have strong liberal support on cam- than 200 students, not one student 10.6% Endorsement pus,” said Taylor Daily ’13, presi- claimed to maintain political beliefs Brown Republicans endorse dent of Brown Students for Obama. divergent from those of both of their Romney, slam Obama Daily said he would like to see even parents when they were questioned greater voter turnout for Obama, earlier this semester, he said. TODAY TOMORROW adding that students who hold more “When you’re 18 to 22, a lot of liberal views than Obama on social your political beliefs are simply in- and economic issues may be disil- formed by how you are raised,” Tesler EINAT BRENNER / HERALD lusioned by the president’s inability added. An October Herald poll indicates students are overwhelmingly in support 48 / 27 45 / 32 to institute stronger liberal policies Sofia Fernan- / / Poll page 4 of President Obama, and a majority plan to vote in their home states. America abroad: The U.S. election on the world stage Lowry’s By ELIZABETH CARR CITY & STATE EDITOR David Chung ’14 new book When the American public elected Oxford, England Barack Obama to serve as the 44th Kat Thornton ’14 President Nov. 4, 2008, his supporters Havana, Cuba wraps up burst into celebration — not just on the Main Green of the University’s tradition- ally left-leaning campus and across the ‘The Giver’ United States, but in the streets of Rome, Emma Wohl ’14.5 Paris, Geneva, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil series even Kogelo village in Kenya, home to Obama’s step-grandmother. Hannah Abelow ’14 By ELIZABETH KOH For many of those celebrating, Cape Town, South Africa SENIOR STAFF WRITER Obama’s election meant a fresh face for American foreign policy. From his prede- GREG JORDan-DETAMORE / HERALD Since its publication in 1993, “The Giver” cessor President George W. Bush, Obama Brown students currently studying abroad present an international perspective on U.S. presidential elections. has become one of many simultaneously inherited the “war on terror,” a tangle of But some international supporters say Meanwhile, the Arab Spring, a series crisis means the next president will face a beloved and banned books of children’s two unpopular military engagements and they’ve found Obama’s performance in of revolutions in Northern Africa and the volatile global economy that could ham- literature. But nearly 20 years after her heightened tensions across the Middle office underwhelming. Arabian Peninsula against undemocratic per domestic growth amid already high first foray into the colorless and emotion- East. Following the 2003 American in- Over the last four years, the Obama regimes, and the recent terrorist attack unemployment. less world introduced in “The Giver,” vasion of Iraq and the Bush administra- administration’s decisions have had a The winner of tomorrow’s presiden- author Lois Lowry, a former member of tion’s foreign policy, world opinion of the profound effect on international affairs. SEE SPREAD PAGES 6-7 tial election will make policy decisions the class of 1958, returns a final time in United States was largely negative, and Obama scaled back America’s military that will have broad repercussions on the the series’ fourth novel, “Son.” Obama’s message of change seemed to commitments — the last American that killed four Americans at the Libyan global stage. Today, in reports by students “Son” introduces 14-year-old Claire, resonate. During Obama’s European tour troops left Iraq in December 2011, and embassy, have again brought the issue of studying abroad in Brazil, Cuba, England who gives birth in the same community prior to the election in 2008, an estimated American and NATO troops have be- American involvement in the Middle and South Africa, The Herald examines the protagonist of “The Giver” grew up 200,000 people gathered in Berlin to hear gun to withdraw from Afghanistan in East to the forefront of national discourse. attitudes toward the coming election in almost two decades before, and fol- him speak, according to Berlin police. a process that will be complete in 2014. And Europe’s ongoing sovereign debt through the eyes of the world. lows her mission to find and reclaim the son who was taken from her. It is a tale of travels and travails as Claire leaves the nameless community for a journey First R.I. Comic Con draws celebrities, gamers imbued as much with magic and trans- By JORDAN HENDRICKS biggest show in the smallest state.” And formation as with the immutable themes FEATURES EDITOR with a conservative estimate of 15,000 of love and loss. attendees for the weekend — including Where “The Giver” left readers con- About 15,000 people descended upon a handful of Brown students — the templating the open questions posed downtown Providence this weekend convention nearly filled Rhode Island’s by its ending, “Son” pulls all the char- — among them stormtroopers, bat- largest convention venue. acters together and answers almost all men, ninjas, superheroes, monsters The convention took up a large por- the questions. Though the novel begins and aliens. tion of the convention center, with with Claire, the first third of the book Some of them trained to be Jedi. about 200 vendors, dozens of artists overlaps chronologically with the events Others shouted obscenities at a live and celebrity guests setting up camp of “The Giver,” layering the events from cast of “The Rocky Horror Picture in a large — and completely packed the first book with new meaning and Show.” Some met and interacted with — ballroom on the lower level. Other tenderness. “Son” is as much a reunion the celebrities who played their favorite events, such as celebrity Q&As, shows with the characters of this universe as it fictional characters of their childhood and panels took place on the upper is a closure. — or adult — lives. level. But the universe Lowry writes in has This weekend was the first Rhode grown alongside its readers. Where “The EMILY GILBERT / HERALD Island Comic Con, held in the Rhode Celebrity sightings Giver” and the following two books each This weekend marked the first Rhode Island Comic Con. Attendees Island Convention Center Nov. 3-4. In the celebrity section of the feature a young adult with unique “gifts,” participated in panels, celebrity Q&As and film screenings. Its website promised it would be “the downstairs level, / / Comic page 3 “Son” takes a / / Lowry page 3 THE BROWN dailY HERALD 2 arts & culture MONdaY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 CALENDAR Exclusive: Q&A with Lois Lowry Today Nov. 4 TOMORROW Nov. 5 4 P.M. 6 P.M. Herald: Since its publication, “The gratifying to the author to realize that. rehearses their own future by weighing Slicing Up Space Kutlug Ataman Lecture Giver” has faced multiple bans. “Son” You were a photographer as well as their own feelings against the decisions Smith-Buonanno, Room 201 Granoff, Martinos Auditorium could be seen as equally controversial. writer. What do you feel is the link the character makes. And so, in a book 7:30 P.M. 6:30 P.M. In general, how have you approached between visuals and writing, and how for older kids, like “The Giver” quartet, the controversy, and what is your an- do you capture it on the page? I raised situations and issues that you Fresh: the movie SPEC Election Viewing Party swer to people who are trying to ban That’s a hard question and an interesting know in a way have political implications Smith-Buonanno, Room 201 Campus Center, Leung Gallery the books? one. I’ve always been a visual person. I and sometimes emotional implications. Lowry: Public libraries are well-known studied photography in graduate school, But they’re all … disguised by a narrative for their defense of freedom of speech and I worked first as a photojournalist and by a plot, and the story carries the MENU and so that’s never happened, but occa- for magazines and newspapers.