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What would Thomas Jefferson say to Elvis Presley?

 

Now there’s a question to ponder, which Harvard University Professor Robert Kiely has. The question figures in the topic of his upcoming lecture, “From Monticello to Graceland: Jefferson and Elvis as American Icons.” The professor of English, author and book reviewer for The New York Times will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Houston Memorial Chapel at Randolph College, thanks to the Friends of the Lynchburg Public Library and the Dr. and Mrs. C.H. Lippard Memorial Fund.

 

And what would such an event be without music? To the King, music was everything, and to Jefferson, who played the violin, it was his “favorite passion,” according to Colonial Williamsburg. So Randolph College students will accompany the lecture with selections from Jefferson’s era, such as “Since Love Is the Plan,” and some Elvis hits, a la “Can’t Help Falling in Love.

 

A telephone interview with Kiely revealed that his pondering of things Jefferson and Elvis began with a road trip.

In January five or six years ago, he and his wife decided to drive to California for his sabbatical at Stanford University via the Southern route. They planned an itinerary that would take them through Charlottesville, where they had friends and where sooner or later everyone visits Monticello.

Kiely’s students noted that if the Kielys were driving through Tennessee, then naturally that would require a stop at Graceland. While not a huge Elvis fan, Kiely added that mecca to the list.

He said he later heard that Graceland, along with Monticello and the White House, numbers among the top five or 10 historic homes people go to see.

 

On his return to Massachusetts, Kiely said a student asked, “Are you going to write something about this?”

That got Kiely thinking. Jefferson and Elvis are both American icons, albeit from vastly different realms.

What, if any, commonalities might the two share, besides being Southerners? And, Kiely wondered, “what, if anything, they might say to each other?

Kiely thought about the advice-filled letters Jefferson sent to a nephew. Jefferson was a truly disciplined person, and “I think his advice to Elvis might be to be a more disciplined person.”

Elvis, for his part, seemed to be searching for a father figure, Kiely said. (One relationship that might suggest it was the one with his manager, “Col.” Tom Parker.)

 

So, were Jefferson and Elvis to talk, “I think the conversation would have been father/son, uncle/nephew.”

There is, of course, more to the lecture than one question. It broaches broader subjects, such as “what does pop culture have to say to high-brow culture?” in Kiely’s words.

The answers, though, are part of the lecture, and the big reveal comes Tuesday.

 

(News, Source SanjaM)

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