“Shit Children”
The Andy Warhol Diaries“Shit Children” is Salvador Dalí’s irreverent label for punks, casting them as the descendants of beatniks and hippies. In the diary, the phrase stands out as a compact account of cultural succession: a new generation appears not from nowhere, but as the unruly heir to earlier countercultures.
Origin and Meaning
Dalí introduced the expression while talking with Andy Warhol. He linked punks to beatniks and hippies through descent, making the name less a neutral category than a deliberately coarse generational joke. Its insult sharpens the connection: the punks inherit their predecessors’ oppositional identity, but the inheritance is rendered as something disreputable and provocative.
Warhol’s Response
Warhol reacted with delighted approval, calling the phrase great and describing Dalí as smart. His response registers both the expression’s comic force and the appeal of its lineage-making idea. The diary offers no further account of the term’s use or circulation, but preserves the moment of recognition: Dalí supplies the label, and Warhol endorses its wit and its reading of punk as a cultural descendant.
