Complete the High-Middle-Low assignment. You have on the assignment sheet at least two samples from each level (that is, low, middle, and high).
the low level (make each one either middle or high)
Tyler Durden, Fight Club rules (Chuck Palahniuk, 1996)
“Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club! Third rule of Fight Club: if someone yells ‘stop!’, goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: the fights are bare knuckle. No shirt, no shoes, no weapons. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to fight.”
Adele, “Hello” (2015)
“Hello, how are you? / It’s so typical of me to talk about myself. I’m sorry. / I hope that you’re well. / Did you ever make it out of that town where nothing ever happened? / It’s no secret that both of us are running out of time. / So, hello from the other side. / I must have called a thousand times. / To tell you I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done. / But when I call you never seem to be home. / Hello from the outside. / At least I can say that I’ve tried. / To tell you I’m sorry for breaking your heart. / But it don’t matter, it clearly doesn’t tear you apart anymore.”
the middle level (pick 2 to make either low or high)
From Isocrates, To Nicocles 11 (4th century BCE)
“Therefore, no athlete is so called upon to train his body as is a king to train his soul; for not all the public festivals in the world offer a prize comparable to those for which you who are kings strive every day of your lives. This thought you must lay to heart, and see to it that in proportion as you are above the others in rank so shall you surpass them in virtue.”
From Hillary Clinton’s Remarks at the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session (1995)
“The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard. Women comprise more than half the world’s population, 70% of the world’s poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write. We are the primary caretakers for most of the world’s children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued — not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.”
St. Vincent, “The Party” (2009)
Honey, the party, you went away quickly,
but oh, that’s the trouble with ticking and tocking.
I lick the ice cubes from your empty glass.
Oh, we’ve stayed much too late
till they’re cleaning the ashtrays.
Do you have change or a button or cash?
Oh, my pockets hang out like two surrender flags.
Oh, but I’d pay anything to keep my conscience clean.
Keeping my eye on the exits, I’m steady now.
How did we get here?
With creaks in these chairs.
Oh, there aren’t enough hands to point all the fingers.
But I sit transfixed by a hole in your t-shirt.
Oh, I’ve said much too much,
and they’re trying to sweep up.
the high level (pick 2 to make middle or low)
From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “On Eloquence” (1847)
“That which he wishes, that which eloquence ought to reach, is not a particular skill in telling a store, or neatly summing up evidence, or arguing logically, or dexterously addressing the prejudice of the company,- no, but a taking sovereign possession of the audience. Him we call an artist who shall play on an assembly of men as a master on the keys of the piano,-who, seeing the people furious, shall soften and compose them, shall draw them, when he will, to laughter and to tears. Bring him to his audience, and, be they who they may,- coarse or refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or savage, with their opinions in the keeping of a confessor, or with their opinions in their bank-safes,- he will have them pleased and humored as he chooses; and they shall carry and execute that which he bids them.”
From Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (July 4, 1852)
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”
From Queen Elizabeth I’s “Speech to the Troops at Tilbury” (1588)
“We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too…”
