djj (06/22/82)
As Andy Warhol (I think) once said, "Everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes once in their life." While I do not literally believe this, I am interested in exploring an off-shoot of this: Joseph Heller Disease --------------------- As I am sure most of you know, *Catch-22* is a great novel. However, it was the crowning glory of Heller's writing career and it was one of his early works (his first 'major' work, I believe). Further literary efforts on his part have been (in my opinion) disappointing, to say the least. Another example of JHD is the rock group Boston. Their first album was superb and took the rock world by storm. While their second album got moderate airplay, it could never live up to the promise of the first. The final example that comes to mind is Don McLean (of American Pie fame). This song is an all-time classic, but what (of substance) has he done since? Not too much! Granted, these are my opinions (please no flames from Heller,Boston, or McLean fans). I am interested in receiving other examples from any disciplines of this phenomenon: an artist or group of artists that "blew their creative wad" on their first 'major' public effort and were never able to re-capture that magic. Please send replies to me *by mail* and I will publish a compilation on the net. Thanks in advance -- Dave Johnson BTL - Piscataway (...!pyuxcc!djj)