Sometimes people say:
— There are no rules or laws in art!
They quote Mayakovsky:
— All poetry is a journey into the unknown!
Such conclusions are sometimes considered necessary to pass on not only to young poets but also to young actors, painters, and musicians. And in saying this, they refer to Salieri, who “devoured music like a corpse” and dared to test harmony with algebra. They point to other unsuccessful attempts to uncover the laws of creativity. They recall the well-known saying: “Talent is like money: if you have it, you have it; if you don’t, you don’t.”
And finally, they tell the sad story of the unfortunate centipede—when it was sternly asked what its seventeenth leg does when the thirty-third goes down and the twenty-second rises, the poor centipede, while analyzing this scientific problem, completely forgot how to move.
Whether the centipede had talent is never mentioned. And yet, that is crucial. If it had no talent, it wouldn’t be worth discussing. But if it did have talent—perhaps it truly examined the issue and found the answer. And it did not waste time—perhaps it even invented a more logical and even artistic way to move. Talent is inevitably linked with curiosity!
In any case, all these arguments, anecdotes, and sayings cannot confirm the impossible—that there are no laws at all. Because laws must exist, just as there are phenomena in reality. There are phenomena: the creative process, the development of talent—therefore, there are laws that govern these phenomena.
And if it is said that poetry is a journey into the unknown, we must remember that Mayakovsky knew the goal of each of his works. He did not wait for inspiration to “strike” him but worked methodically like a diligent craftsman and even wrote an article titled “How to Make Poems.”
And most importantly—the unknown is not synonymous with the incomprehensible. The unknown can be the starting point in the process of knowledge.
