The Transposed Heads: A Legend of India

So much to contemplate in such a slender volume, ‘The Transposed Heads’ retells an Indian myth of lust and desire and love and identity. Two men fall for a beautiful woman - the intellectual one becomes love-sick' and takes her as his bride.

The philosophical core of the book is the dilemma of choice and desire, ‘brawn’ versus ‘brain’ in this instance, where the woman falls for both men, one for his body and the other his ‘head’.

Visiting a temple, the men cut of their heads and the Goddess of the temple instructs the woman to reattach them, making sure that the heads are facing the right way. However the heads are mixed up and become attached to the wrong bodies – perhaps slightly intentionally as Mann hints later. show more

The rest of the fable deals with the moral dilemmas of monogamy, friendship, identity and lust. Who is her husband? What are her loyalties and responsibilities? What are her desires? Read this book and find out how it plays out. show less

This folkloric, Hindu-light treatment of desire, loyalty and identity lacks the craft, gravity and heft of other Thomas Mann novels. His few prose outbursts in description of beauty or deity seem strained in their efforts to sound like products of a different literary tradition. Yes, the philosophy of India was exercising a noticeable pull on German thinkers around the time of Mann's composition and experimentation is fun; but Mann's homage doesn't seem particularly well informed or well executed. For someone with Mann's gift for creating memorable characters to provide us with just three wafer-thin creations, mostly for the purpose of spouting used-up meditations on ways of living in the world, was rather disappointing. However, the show more physicality of the book, its beheadings and transformations make it a rather quick read. Fans of Mann won't be that impressed and junkies of all things India probably won't be that satisfied either. show less

Few pages, leaving the reader with much to think about. What is attraction? What is beauty? What is the role of love and lust in a relationship? What is, ultimately, morality? Written with a light, humorous touch, the book is unforgettable.

A short novella dealing with some of the most basic human conflicts and the most fundamental question of identity. Magical realism be damned. And where's the sixth star?

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Mann-Les-Tetes-interverties/365419

> LES TÊTES INTERVERTIES, de Thomas Mann. — Il était une fois deux beaux jeunes gens, fort dissemblables en tous points et, néanmoins amis ; assis au bord d'une rivière dans un décor de miniature, ils assistent, malgré eux, au bain de Sita aux belles hanches. Tiraillés entre désirs et insatisfactions, ils seront manipulés par un destin qui a le visage de Kâli, dont la mansuétude a des limites !!! Comme Hermann Hesse à la même époque, Thomas Mann s'est intéressé à l'Inde et fait une description d'une grande justesse du caractère des personnages, de leur vie religieuse, du climat et du mode de vie. L’écriture est moderne et le ton est si show more sobre, qu'il convient tout à fait pour décrire une Inde de l'Age d'Or, des temps mythiques où les Dieux s'adressaient aux hommes. Ce livre mériterait une réédition dans la collection « Les introuvables »… En attendant (on peut rêver !) les amateurs de « chine » peuvent se lancer sur la piste des bouquinistes. Éditions Albin Michel, 1949. (Françoise BLÉVÔT).
—Carnets du Yoga, oct. 1988

> INTERVERTION ET RECONVERSION : LES TÊTES INTERVERTIES de Thomas Mann. trad. de Louise Servicen.
Les têtes interverties est un recueil de nouvelles dont l’action se situe aux Indes. Thomas Mann s’y amuse, dans une sorte de conte philosophique, à opposer qualités et lacunes chez ses deux personnages principaux, qui trouvent toujours chez l’autre ce qu'ils estiment leur faire défaut.
—(1988). Compte rendu de [En poche]. Nuit blanche, (31), 65–65. show less