Lit Chat

Inspiration for being human.

Objectivity and Perspective, Aesthetics and Truth, African Jazz Roots

Thursday June 4, 2026

Happy Thursday humans! Here is this week's literary inspiration for being human...

Let's consider objectivity and perspective...

This week I finished reading Liesl Ujvary's poetry collection Good & Safe. Her poetic style makes me see the modern world and language from a whole new perspective. If you decide to purchase her book and read it, please email me or share your thoughts in the Lit Chat... I'd love to have a conversation about insights and questions it inspires!

The last section, titled "Autobiography with Instructions," starts out with a series of one-paragraph prose poems with "dry," simple sentences, devoid of emotion and nuance—just objective details in response to a list of questions, like the kinds of questions and basic autobiographical writing one encounters in a language learning course. These poems are followed by another series whose titles begin with "Out with it!" and express much more emotion, feeling, and opinion. These later poems feel like they get at more of the "truth," even if it's truth according to the speaker. The fact that we get to understand the speaker's perspective makes us feel like there is more depth in these pieces, but they are missing the objective details that the earlier prose poems have.

The juxtaposition makes it clear that (1) both types of information—objective details and individual perspectives—are important, and (2) we cannot have "truth" without embracing perspectives. This makes me think about the kinds of details we include in our poetry and storytelling, and it gives me a new way to re-examine my own writing. Now, as I re-read Woman Outside the City, I am looking out for objective details and individual perspectives.

When you re-examine your writing and speech, what is the ratio between objective details and individual perspective? If the ratio is not 50/50, how does it impact the narrative "truth"? Is the ratio appropriate for what you are trying to accomplish? 

Let's discuss aesthetics and truth...

"Your truth is on display—
under fluorescent lights it looks
cheap and sick." 

—"Eve's Necklace" in Woman Outside the City

Do you tell the truth even when it's not pretty? Can you embrace truth even when you don't like how it looks? What are the aesthetics of your truth?

Let's listen to African Jazz Roots...

Released in 2023, Seetu is a beautiful and soothing album of African jazz tunes from the group African Jazz Roots. The ensemble features piano, kora, double bass, calabash, and drums in melodic rhythms that are both traditional and improvisational. Watch the group interact and perform (5 minutes).

How does one simultaneously pay homage to tradition yet invent something new? How can thinking in terms of art and aesthetics allow us to balance seemingly contradictory elements?