Aware that modern celebrities are heirs to the sovereigns of old, (4.5), Ballard built a triple genealogy that echoes the lineages of Seth, Ham and Japheth (1.12):
These are the generations of America.
Sirhan Sirhan shot Robert F. Kennedy. And Ethel M. Kennedy shot Judith Birnbaum. And Judith Birnbaum shot Elizabeth Bochnak. And Elizabeth Bochnak shot Andrew Witwer. And Andrew Witwer shot John Burlingham. And John Burlingham shot Edward R. Darlington. And Edward R. Darlington shot Valerie Gerry. And Valerie Gerry shot Olga Giddy…
And James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King. And Coretta King shot Jacqueline Fisher. And Jacqueline Fisher shot Ernest Brennecke. And Ernest Brennecke shot Peggy Bomba. And Peggy Bomba shot Barry A. Erlich. And Barry A. Erlich shot James E. Huddleston. And James E. Huddleston shot Jerry Miller. And Jerry Miller shot Robert Nordvall…
And Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy. And Jacqueline Kennedy shot Mark S. Goodman. And Mark S. Goodman shot Beverley Davis. And Beverley Davis shot James Willwerth. And James Willwerth shot John J. Austin. And John J. Austin shot Nancy Jalet. And Nancy Jalet shot Leah Shanks. And Leah Shanks shot Christopher Porterfield…1
Instead of presenting the perpetuation of a family, The Generations of America shows a cycle of death and violence that passes from the murderer to his victim and perpetuates itself through the spouse of the patriarch. What genealogy could be more appropriate for a culture obsessed with destruction and domination that one that starts from its celebrity killers? (3.3.3)
A fourth genealogy which took place a year after Ballard finished his story, the Manson Family: “And Charles Manson shot Sharon Tate. And Roman Polanski shot Samantha Jane Gailey. And Samantha Jane Gailey…”
- Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition, 159-63 ↩︎
Leave a Reply