But back to the delights of Grand Theft Auto IV. If immigrant disappointment is quintessentially American, then so is the notion of immigrant criminality. How else does one explain the grip that cultural artifacts like The Sopranos, or The Godfather, or Scarface, or Carlito’s Way, or Gangs of New York, has on the public, their power to somehow persuade people to embrace these American monsters as one of their own? It also speaks to a larger national obsession, what Alexis de Tocqueville saw glimmers of when he warned that “the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint at the sight of the new possessions they are about to obtain”.
Seen in this light, this country’s grim fascination with capitalism and its unfettered demons (see also There Will Be Blood, or American Gangster) becomes more understandable. The fast track to economic success, even through illegal means (and gambling in casinos is arguably only a few degrees removed), is imbued with a special kind of monetary magic.
But the glamour of such illicit activity is interestingly parceled out in unequal doses, and, rather dispiritingly, also according to race. One ethnic group’s “entrepreneurship” and “strong familial loyalty” is another group’s “no regard for the law” and “clannishness”, even in real life. For Asian immigrants who are perhaps painfully cognizant of their unequal access to the American Dream, this is an odd form of marginalization; the figure of the successful Asian entrepreneur (and of course, the Gangster-as-Hero) is seen instead as an economic threat.
I do not mean, of course, to condone criminal behavior, nor to suggest that Asian gangs deserve a little more respect than their other ethnic counterparts. But the psycho-historical connection between capitalism, the borders of the law, and the American Dream also explains the singularly irresponsible thrill of driving around GTA IV’s urban landscape, jacking cars and beating up pimps for money. And it also makes me wish, if only for a minute, that the game’s character was some badass Asian guy in a tricked-out Honda.