Jolanta Brach-Czaina

Membranes of the Mind

About the Author

“Every living thing has a visible and an invisible element. The visible one is weak, while the invisible one is strong and full of life.” Jolanta, daughter of Irena, granddaughter of Bronisława, great-granddaughter of Ludwika summons up the words of Hildegard von Bingen as the motto for one of the essays in her latest book. Exploring the invisible aspects of the world that are hard to perceive and not subject to our sense of vision, but which are fundamental building blocks of the world is also the theme of the entire book.
The author’s declaration of identity is another example of getting through to something that’s invisible in our culture. The genealogy of women is an invisible element in a patriarchal culture, where a woman’s surname is the same as her father’s or husband’s, so Jolanta Brach-Czaina signs herself by the first names of her female ancestors. Nevertheless, she has no illusions about the history of women, which is nothing but a dried-up stream, an empty riverbed. Jolanta, daughter of Irena… goes back to it only in order to confirm that there’s nothing there. This return gives rise to admiration for the power  of giving birth? – that once filled the bed of the dried-up river.
Joanna Brach-Czaina’s new book is not just a challenge to philosophy, but is also poetry, though not in the least sentimental. This sort of beauty is never soothing, but can be predatory, as in the essay about the pumpkin Galician-style. Her world is both beautiful and dangerous, sometimes shocking in its cruelty. That’s why it’s a good idea to freeze its parts in a glacier or under a sheet of ice in a dangerous lake, and never to slice or remove its skin, because underneath, deep down at the bottom there are things and matters that cannot be endured; exposing them is deadly.

Sławomira Walczewska