The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am.(Book Review)

The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am. Ed. Richard Greene and Peter Vernezze. Chicago: Open Court, 2004.

The long-running HBO series The Sopranos inspired the latest volume from Open Court's Popular Culture and Philosophy series. In The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am, editors Richard Greene and Peter Vernezze collected seventeen essays from academic scholars with diverse interests. The essays range from Sun Tzu's The Art of War to Nietzsche's nihilisms and feminist philosophy on care ethics. This book tries to make philosophical sense of the conflicted main character, Tony Soprano, and his "family."

Tony, the beloved New Jersey mob boss and patriarch, is rich soil for deeply rooted philosophies. As Aristotle might say, "the root of education is bitter, but the fruit is sweet." Tony is abhorrent, with a total disregard for women through repeated infidelity, and his crimes include murder, kidnapping, and extortion. Despite his crimes and violence, many of the volume authors and millions of TV viewers like Tony. Perhaps the well-written scripts deliberately designed the character of Tony Soprano to create such a dichotomy. Maybe we are intrigued by the absolutes in Tony's world.

It is fascinating to watch Tony do something horrendous. For example, after executing his old friend "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (played by Vincent Pastore, who wrote the foreword), he went home and was a good father to his children. Although this is not the typical workday for a suburban father, Tony is still eminently relatable. He copes with personal and external discontent and employment issues, questions his place in the universe, and provides for his wife and children. Tony represents a man who must separate his work from his personal life, and like so many Americans today, he must do so with the ...