la vita negativa
What if we practiced living our lives in the negative?
By looking at what doesn’t fit – the no’s instead of the yesses? And by looking at what is not true - or no longer true – in our lives and about ourselves?
This question arose after I encountered the term for the first time during David Whyte’s Three Sundays series on The Shyness of Love. What does it truly mean to live via negativa?
“The term – via negativa – has been applied in various contexts throughout history since its origin in the late 5th century AD as a type of theology which attempts to explain or define by god by what god is not. More recently, the term has been applied to experimental forms of art and performance, specifically to the work of Polish theater director, Jerzy Grotowski.
Whyte’s use of the term was in reference to navigating our lives. In periods of change where sometimes the next steps aren’t always clear, Whyte’s recommendation was that we can attune to the no’s in our lives. We can use them to redirect away from what we don’t want and what no longer fits. A sort of “not this, not that” approach. A visual of a Roomba making its way around a room comes to mind. Nope, can’t go that direction, redirect. Over and over. Eventually it discerns the clear path, as do we.
This can be a useful recommendation when we find ourselves lost, uncertain or in transition in our lives. To continue to move away from what doesn’t fit or feel right, and eventually we will move into what does.
However, we can also consider Grotowski’s use of via negative to go perhaps a bit deeper. Grotowski used the concept of via negativa as an attempt to reduce a performance to its basic elements. No set, props, or costumes - just the actors and the audience. His goal was to focus on the relationship between the actor and the viewer. And to better understand what is, or is not, the essence of that relationship.
Applying Grotowski’s interpretation in our own lives can allow us to remove some of our own sets, props and costumes. The idea evokes a sort of Marie Kondo-esque practice (complete with a “karate-chop” type motion in my mind’s eye) - not for getting rid of the objects in our lives, but for slashing away at the ideas, assumptions, and ways of being. The roles, titles, jobs, and relationships that no longer suit. The things we assume to be at least semi-fixed or essential in our lives. And which shape our definitions of ourselves.
We often develop a fixed idea of who and how we are. Taking on the practice of via negativa as Grotowski imagined it, or even just experimenting with it, can help us to release ourselves from self-concepts which no longer serve us. It allows us to look at our relationships with ourselves, others, and the world around us more clearly.
Succinctly put by Emma Stone in an interview about her preparation for her role in “Poor Things” where she noted that she had to unlearn everything she knew about acting. She said that, in the process, she found herself “stripping away as much as possible – taking away shame, taking away self-judgment and judgment of the outer world, and just remaining open. To actually live in that [as her character, Bella, does]… means you really can’t have this self-criticism that’s just normal for anyone to have.”
So perhaps by embracing the practice of via negativa, we can not only navigate through the transitions in our lives a bit more fluidly. But we can also let go of some of the concepts, and self-judgments, we have of ourselves and the world around us as well.