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Television

The Sopranos

Jarett Figlin discusses depravity & the American dream.

The media we consume can be a means to vicariously experience emotions through fictional characters. The anger and hostility we so often bottle up in our daily lives can rear their ugly heads without consequence as we watch fictional characters enacting violence and hatred upon one another. This is part of the surface level draw of films, books and TV series centered around the mafia. It can be deeply cathartic to watch people so far from our social expectations engage with each other according to their own very different rules. Real mafia figures such as John Gotti and Al Capone gained near-heroic status not simply because they organised what people viewed as benefits to the community, but also because those who did behave within societal constraints wished at some level they could be like these figures.

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