I am looking for thoughts about poetic license and the use of double negatives

I am new to the group. I am a lifelong poet and enslaved to the written word.

This query spawns from a line in Jurassic Park: Lost World. Whilst the line in question is one of my very favorites, the grammar is atrocious. "She has to touch it! She can't not touch." While ineloquent in its delivery, the dramatic flair is amazing, and I personally can not break down how it would be said differently. In normal double negatives eg. "I don't have none!" (I physically shuddered typing this!) the correction is simple: remove a negative. "I have none!" or "I don't have any!" Both of these are acceptable and appropriate.

Does anyone else have a perspective on this or a solution to the phrase? Until next time! 𝖒𝖖𝖉𝖇

Solution 1:

You certainly have an ear for language. What may be missing in this case is an ear for punctuation. If I may restate your problem it may become easier to solve.

"She has to touch it! She can't 'not touch it'." You will please pardon the added word.

This of course is a short way of telling us that she is unable to go without touching it despite the repercussions. They need to move the plot along after all.

I do not have the grammatical tool kit to peer into the sentence as many learned folks here, but I am certain that one needs to describe the problem properly to begin the process. Not a solution, but I couldn't "not suggest it".

Solution 2:

It’s not a double negative. Both negative words are active.

Merriam Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/double%20negative defines double negative as

: a now nonstandard syntactic construction containing two negatives and having a negative meaning

"I didn't hear nothing" is a double negative

“She can’t not touch” means she is unable not to touch it, but is compelled to touch.

“She cannot refrain from touching it” perhaps seems more comfortable, but “refrain” also has negative force.

See John Lawler’s answer to Origin and correctness of “ain’t no”? for more on negatives and negative polarity.