This week, I was teaching my students about the Negation of the Negation, a concept I’ve slowly grown obsessed with the more I study it. If you’re unfamiliar with it, try the video above or check out this article.
So I was working with some students this past week and we talked about the concept of CONSCIOUSNESS as a value in a story. Here’s how the Negation of the Negation works:
Positive value: Consciousness (we’re alive, we’re thinking)
Contrary value: unconsciousness (this is the compromise value between positive and contradictory. Think of it as the middle ground between the + and the -)
Contradictory value: Death (this is the stark opposite of Consciousness)
Negation of the Negation: Damnation (What’s worse than death? Eternal suffering!)
So my students came up with the story of Jack (the name and details of the character don’t matter … make up whatever you want!) who is a furniture builder. One day, he suffers an accident and ends up in a coma. The doctors say there’s very little chance of him getting out of it.
But he does! … Years later. And his wife has remarried, and his two children are already in middle school. His former life has been eradicated. So what does he do? He starts building sets for the plays and musical performances his kids’ school puts on. In doing so, he slowly reconnects with his children.
Write this story. Pull Jack out of the status of damnation by letting him slowly reclaim a part of his life that’s so dear to him: his children.