“Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
— Ode on a Grecian Urn, by John Keats
Why do some poems and songs survive for all time while others disappear into the ether? Why are some stories immortal, staying with us all our lives, while we forget details about many others or even forget whether we read or watched them?
Experts and scholars lay down the formulas, and the creative types follow the recipe to a T, and still some pieces fail to move us and others capture our hearts.
We can say we know how it works, but it’s not a science. You may as well boil water and toss in eye of newt as claim to have concocted a foolproof method of creating lasting beauty — and that’s the truth.
