Infatuation is often synonymous with teenage crushes and belonging to something unattainable. It’s all-consuming and yet, confusing, existence can overcome both the recipient of such infatuation and the one afflicted. In its own way, infatuation is an illness. Born of an uncontrollable desire that blurs the lines between obsession and love.

One important consideration is whether to call infatuation ‘love’. The qualities of such an emotion mimic those we associate with love – strong admiration, deep caring for another, in romantic ways, a physical attraction. But infatuation pushes love into deeper waters, where obsession merges with possession and the afflicted becomes consumed with the mere idea of the one they desire. Underneath it all, this is the true nature of infatuation.

Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name encompasses all sides of infatuation, love and, most importantly, desire. It examines the very core of desire and what it means to be intimate.

Continue reading “Zwischen Immer und Nie: An Exploration of Infatuation and Desire in Andre Aciman’s ‘Call Me By Your Name’”