djj (07/25/82)
As you may recall, I asked for examples of artists or scientists whose first
work was their greatest. This I called JHD (re: Catch-22).
>From the responses received, I have noticed the necessity of creating an
additional flavor of JHD: those people who have only had *one*
"successful" work in their careers. While this was not exactly what I was
looking for, I found all of the responses very interesting. The
responses are summarized below. No differentiation is made between pure
JHD and modified JHD.
Thanks to all who responded. A special thanks to Ned Horvath (whuxlb!ech)
for clarifying the difference between Andy Warhol's "famous for 15 minutes"
(the result of media hype) and JHD. An interesting note: of all who
responded, there were NO duplications! Do we all have different impressions
of JHD???
Regards,
Dave Johnson
BTL - Piscataway
Joseph Heller Disease
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My original thoughts:
1. Joseph Heller - Catch-22.
2. The rock group Boston.
3. Don McLean - American Pie.
The Contributions (in order received):
1. Heller's "Something Happened" is superb - perhaps his best book.
2. John Barth: His best effort is his first - "The Sot Weed Factor."
3. Three examples from the world of CS:
Peter Denning - His PhD work at MIT expounded the Working Set model.
Nothing of note since.
Jay Early - n^3 parsing algorithm for arbitrary context-free
grammars for his PhD. Nothing since.
Noam Chomsky - Grammar classes in the early 50's. Anti-war
activist since.
4. The Knack: Their first album included the pop hit "My Sharona."
5. Looking Glass: Their first (and only?) album included the
pop hit "Brandy."
6. Hot Tuna: A great first acoustic album. Their second ("Electric Tuna
and Burgers") was awful.
7. Jonathon Irving: Tells the same story over and over. "The World
According to Garp" is his most successful attempt.
8. The rock group Vanilla Fudge.
9. Dire Straits: Nothing much after their first - "Sultans of Swing."
10. James Jones: His first novel, "From Here to Eternity," is a classic.
His later efforts don't measure up.
11. Quicksilver Messenger Service: Their second album, "Happy Trails,"
is one of the best of the 1960's.
12. Steeler's Wheel: Their only hit was "Stuck in the Middle with You."
This group included Jerry Rafferty who had JHD on his
own with his only smash hit "Baker Street."
13. The Zombies: Their only hit was about the girl who disappeared and had
to have her hair some way (title unknown).
14. Cream: Their only hit *single* was "White Room."
15. Shirley Temple: As an actress, not a politician.
16. Bob Dylan.
17. Charlie Chaplin.
18. Bobby Fisher. (Has he even *played* since he beat Spassky?? - djj)
19. Wordsworth, Coleridge: Wrote most of their best poetry before they
were thirty (individually, not collectively!).
20. Iron Butterfly: Anything since "Inna-godda-da-vida?"
To close, I want to quote from whuxlb!ech. Ned, I hope you don't mind,
but I think this is worthy of further distribution.
"Personally, I have far more interest in the consistent performers. How
does Don Knuth keep it up? Jeff Ullman? Martin Gardner? Isaac Asimov?
Albert Einstein? J. S. Bach? George Lucas? Who are the people working
today whose track records aren't long enough to tell, but are on paths of
consistent brilliance? Ron Rivest? Doug Hofstadter? John Varley?
Can it be learned? What age do you have to start?"
Any thoughts on this???