Even the art forms are commercialized, controlled, meant to be marketed and sold. Dear artist, who were you before you chose your form? How have you edited yourself since then to fit your form? What did the painter call herself before she became a painter? What did the novelist call himself before he became a novelist? From whence in her did the urge to paint come? From whence in him did the urge to write come? How did they experience it at first? What outlets did it find before she picked up a brush, before he picked up a pen?

In order to be a form, there must be guidelines, rules, restrictions. I recently read about how Kerouac did not abide by the 5-7-5 syllable format for haikus. But what will they be called then? What will the poems be called that are in a 4-7-6 syllable format? Or 6-7-8? Or 8-6-7? They are close to haikus but they are not. Who invented haikus in the first place? Why did they choose the 5-7-5 format? Perhaps because there is a natural rhythm to it, similar to how iambic meter sounds like a human heartbeat. buh-BUM-buh-BUM-buh-BUM. unstressed-STRESSED-unstressed-STRESSED-unstressed-STRESSED. But there are more natural phenomena than just the human heartbeat. A format that sounds natural to one person might sound unnatural to another. Maybe there is an emotion that needs an unnatural format to be properly articulated.

The creative romps of an artist are not cut and dry. They run amuck, break rules, like a child colors outside of the lines designed by the coloring book company that implied the child would draw within them.

But maybe there are lines. Everything is not disorder. There is cause and effect. There are commonalities and universalities. As humans, there are things we can agree on. Survival seems to be one of them. Art may be another. If we generally agree that some art is better than others, this may be how forms get there beginning. There are some forms we prefer to consume over others. Certain ways we like to hear stories told, certain ways we like to see paintings displayed, certain ways we like to watch actors and dancers.

So I do not think that doing away with form altogether is the answer. But when is the appropriate time to break from form? And how does abiding by form affect the art that an artist creates?