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‘The Sopranos’: The Academic Symposium
Ever wonder what that bear in Tony’s backyard really meant on The Sopranos? Or whether Tony died in the finale? Or who the hell Kevin Finnerty was? Well, over Memorial Day weekend, a symposium at Fordham University will try to clear those things up, along with plenty of other things you didn’t even know confused you about David Chase’s complex show. Presentations include “Comfortably Numb? The Sopranos, New Brutalism and the Last Temptation of Chris,†“‘When It Comes to Daughters, All Bets Are Off’: Meadow Soprano and the Question of Familial Determinism in The Sopranos,†and “‘Blabbermouth Cunts’: The Sopranos and the Feminist Dilemma.†(We can guarantee you that last one wasn’t in the course catalog when we were a student at Fordham.) Most of the speakers are college professors — surely the cool ones from their respective schools who showed movies in class instead of assigning actual academic reading. We’re considering checking the symposium out — it’s free and open to the public. Sadly, though, we’ve read the list of talks twice (which took forever, by the way), and none of these academics dare answer the one thing we really want to know: Seriously, what happened with the Russian? —Joe DeLessio
Sopranos Symposium at Fordham University, Final Program [Paul Levinson’s Infinite Regress]