Unaccustomed As I Am
December 20th, 2008
One of the units I am teaching next year relates to powerful or exceptional bits of writing or speech. So far I only have a quite modest collection.
Examples of powerful English – Red Space Rocket Wiki
What do you think I should add? I might be a speech, it might be a passage from a book, lines from a film, lyrics from a song, anything that you think really works?
Previously on this date..
- Obi Finn - 2007
- What More Can A Poor Boy Do? - 2006
- Christmas Slow Down - 2006
- The Other Playlist - 2006
- Only The Bones - 2005
- The Band Elwood - 2005
- Playlist - 2004
- Heads Up - 2004
- Noisy Settling Noises - 2003
- When Broadband Isn't - 2003
- I Could Get Used to This - 2002
- Probability - 2002
- The Signature Model - 2002
- A Whimper - 2002
- Friday - 2002
- Nicky thinks these are - 2001
- Well the afternoon is almost - 2001
- There has been a bit - 2001
- It's time for the Christmas - 2001
- While I am unlikely to - 2001
- Thursday at last. Lesson - - 2001
I like your list so far.
The only glaring omission seems to be something by that great wordsmith Sarah Palin.
p.s. Do song lyrics count?
How about some more Shakespeare – Portia (the quality of mercy) or Shylock (if you prick us do we not bleed) from The Merchant of Venice; ‘to be or not to be’ from Hamlet.
Does Kevin whatisname have a good speech in The Untouchables or is it Sean Connery? Or Hugh Grant’s voiceover at the end of Love Actually?
For song lyrics: From Little Things, Imagine, Nothing Compares (To You).
I’m sure I’ll come up with some more. If I dig through the books I might even find some ancient Greek or Roman ones …
Atticus Finch’s defence of Tom Robinson in “To kill a mockingbird”
a bit more suburban, but i quite like shane maloney’s speech to scotch college kids a couple of years ago:
http://www.ipgn.com.au/forum/archive/index.php/t-42087.html
this speech was very powerful when i heard it: http://www.gayline.gen.nz/gay_games.htm
Song lyrics count.
These are all great, but a few of them might include some swearing you’re probably not allowed to teach to high school students:
25th Hour (Spike Lee) http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QRO3RJ9cYSo
There are a few good speeches in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, including the quotes at the end
Edward R. Murrow, Goodnight and goodluck (see youtube and Clooney film)
Network, Finch’s “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”
Dog Day Afternoon, Pacino’s “Attica” speech
A few good speeches in Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove
Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator
“Choose” speech in Trainspotting
Casablanca speech on the tarmac
Civil rights song: We shall overcome
NWA, Fuck the Police
Public Enemy, Fight the Power
Neil Young, Alabama and the direct response to that song, Lyndard Skynard’s Sweet Home Alabama
The Clash, London Calling
Rutger Hauer’s final speech in Blade Runner
And now we’ve turned more to the explicitly political:
Obama’s speech on race (Feb 07?)
Reagan “Tear down this wall”
Nixon Checkers speech
Gandhi Quit India
Minow’s Wasteland speech – a personal favourite, because it’s about tv
Gorbachev Nobel prize speech
Do they have to be originally in English?
Will you study translations?
If you are discussing any Lennon songs in context of peace and protest movements, you might want to show a clip from the film USA vs John Lennon, which is quite good.
Wow, thanks for all those suggestions. That will give me heaps to work with.
i think fuck the police contains swearing, but i’m not sure
I think it is just possible.