[lbo-talk] Sopranos

Michael Dawson MDawson at pdx.edu
Fri Oct 8 16:08:40 PDT 2004


Aren't gangster shows the cinematic equivalent of the lottery? Tales of individual working-class escape through wiliness and cheating the system? And I don't think people feel any remorse over collective arrangements and how "we" benefit from violence, at least not in connection with watching "The Sopranos." Hell, most people genuinely believe that "our troops" are right now busy "protecting us" and "our way of life." Folks just experienced a flash of guilt for admiring the mafia. That's all.

-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Carl Remick Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 2:57 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Sopranos


>From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>One of the episodes he wrote was the one in which Carmella went to
>see a shrink on her own. The shrink, instead of taking the neutral
>line, tells her she's not merely an enabler, but is complicit in
>Tony's crimes, and she should take the kids & leave right away. Of
>course she goes right back to Tony. Some of the critics read this as
>addressed to the audience - you too are complicit by watching. The
>creators of the show didn't mean it that way, but apparently a lot of
>people took it that way.

Very interesting, and commendations to your neighbor. That was one of the most memorable and disturbing episodes I've seen. In a world of comforting psychoblab, Carmella's shrink was shockingly direct and judgmental, with a spooky Old-Testament-God quality. As I recalled, he just stared at Carmella

and told her that Tony was evil and that if she stayed with Tony she would be evil too.

For the audience, I think the discomfort comes not from a sense of being complicit in Tony's crimes, per se, but from a more basic sense of being complicit in the corruption of the US as a society. As has been abundantly illustrated, we live in a country that, like a mob, gets its way in the world through main force, and one way or another we are, like Carmella, beneficiaries of the exercise of force. Years ago I remember former LBO list member Greg Nowell used the phrase "blood in the bottom of a coffee cup" to illustrate the human cost of commodity production, the unseen brutality that undergirds the pleasures we enjoy as consumers. This is an ugly thing to contemplate for any length of time, and it is to the Sopranos'

credit that the show could raise the issue so effectively.

Carl

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