DE Weekly: Elvis, Searching, & American Tragedy
Below is an archived email originally sent on September 16, 2024.
Elvis, Searching, & American Tragedy
The ideas of existentialism aren’t limited to the stories told by the existentialists themselves. In fact, some of the best literature and other art that evokes existentialist ideas do so without even trying.
Don’t get me wrong–when someone tells me they’d like to get into existentialism and asks me what they should read to start, I’m the first to recommend the classics.
The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, No Exit… you get the gist.
But once you’ve got a good grasp of the philosophy, you’ll notice something interesting: it’s everywhere.
What I mean is, the ideas are so relevant to the human experience that they can be found in all great stories.
This was my thought as I flipped through one of my favorite recent reads, Peter Guralnick’s two-part biography on Elvis: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, and Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley.
This 1,100+ page read is a masterpiece in biography–the best I’ve ever read. And it was successful in turning me into a huge Elvis fan, as well–not just because Elvis was awesome, but because I couldn’t get existentialism off my mind when reading it.
Let me try and tell you why.
Elvis’s life was defined by his stardom. He was famous for more than half of his 42-year life. Bigger than anyone had ever been, under the spotlight, with all the scrutiny that comes with it.
No one had ever been as famous as him before. His experience was truly unique. He was the first rockstar–and his life arguably ended because of the pressures and the problems that came with it.
Arguably, what gave him his fame in the first place is what killed him in the end.
To me, there’s something deeply human about that.
To me, a major motif of the books was that, despite being unfathomably rich and having seemingly everything someone could want, Elvis was not happy.
He was deeply troubled, depressed, addicted to substances, and constantly questioning where to place his faith–in God, in himself, or in the Autobiography of a Yogi (he was obsessed with that book for a time).
I think the reason Elvis’s story resonates with me so much is that it could be anyone’s story. It is anyone’s story, if you think about it.
Even though Elvis was Elvis, we’ve all felt like him before. Alienated, alone, lost, unsure…searching for something.
It’s no wonder Elvis has been dubbed “the searcher”. To another point, his story is the perfect American tragedy, perfectly encapsulating the ambition of the 20th century.
It also evokes many of the ideas of existentialism.
All this to say: don’t feel like you can only learn existentialism from the existentialists. There’s so much more of it out there, if you just look.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Brandon J. Seltenrich
P.S.––
I hope you liked my idea of “Pas Encore Vu” from last week’s newsletter. I’ve been thinking a lot about it since I wrote it. Maybe I’ll write a longer piece on it to really explore the idea soon.
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