Description:When all the publicity about my class “Elvis as Anthology” began in 1992, I faced a lot of jeering and prejudice. A radio interviewer from Chicago asked me, on air, whether my class was going to be in pharmaceuticals or cookery. I said it was going to be in literature: I was going to analyze the work as I did novels. There were three targets: (1) Elvis, as working class; (2) Iowans, as hicks; (3) Me, as foreigner. I discovered that when they do not understand, most Americans, including professional critics, mock and put down from a position of superiority.