Alessandro Nai
banner
alessandronai.bsky.social
Alessandro Nai
@alessandronai.bsky.social
Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam, ASCoR @ascor.bsky.social

Dark politics, Political communication & psychology, Negative campaigns, Leader personality

Editor-in-Chief at EJPR @ejprjournal.bsky.social

http://www.alessandro-nai.com
Not too shabby the view from the office tonight
November 11, 2025 at 8:35 AM
#48
Hunchback (Saou Ichikawa, 2023)

Introspective peek into the life of a woman suffering from a severe congenital muscle disorder (like Ichikawa herself). She studies online, writes erotica, and muses about her body. An unflinching, explicit, and important book. Akutagawa prize 2023

#booksky 📚🖋️
November 11, 2025 at 1:47 AM
#47
The Innocent (Ian McEwan, 1990)

A spy-cum-political thriller that also doubles a psychological exploration into love and arrogance (and youth), set in post-war Berlin. As always with McEwan the characters are nuanced and emotions run deep under their skin. Recommended

#booksky 📚🖋️ #litfic
November 9, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Your daily dose of zen
November 8, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Tokyo doing its thing
November 6, 2025 at 2:22 PM
🚨 New piece out at @thejop.bsky.social w awesome @cvargiu.bsky.social & D Garzia

If incivility means breaking norms, & norms are person- and context-dependent, *does incivility even exist*?

In the stage-2 registered report we investigate what drives perceptions of incivility

tinyurl.com/4h5u4y8y
October 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
#46
Beast in the Shadows (Edogawa Rampo, 1928)

Century-old quirky detective/thriller story from Japan’s answer to Edgar Allan Poe (including the Japanese alliteration of the latter in the author's pen name). Fascinating because dated

#booksky #japanliterature 📚🖋️
October 28, 2025 at 6:39 AM
#45
Vibrator (Mari Akasaka, 1999)

Part road trip-cum-love-story, part hallucinated stream of consciousness. Unmoored youth, yakuza, truckers, and the backroads of Japan at night. Packs a lot in a very small book Lyrical and at times beautifully written.

#booksky
October 25, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Current administration keeping up with the trend of identifying wth the bad guys in blockbusters movies
October 24, 2025 at 3:08 AM
I like precision as much as the next Swiss, but this level of detail is a tad unnecessary
October 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Japanese neo brutalism taking no prisoners
October 19, 2025 at 6:28 AM
#44
The Siren's Lament (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, 1917)

Three stories about desire and obsession. Uneven, and certainly a bit dated, but at times engaging. Skip if pompous language is not your thing

#booksky 📚🖋️
October 19, 2025 at 4:12 AM
October 16, 2025 at 6:30 AM
I feel like the original meaning was slightly lost in translation here
October 15, 2025 at 6:27 AM
#43
A Quiet Place (Seichō Matsumoto, 1975)

A bureaucrat’s wife dies suddenly in odd circumstances - what happened? Well crafted study on how mundanity can turn into destructive obsession, and fascinating window into corporate Japan of the 1970s. Recommended

#booksky 📚🖋️
October 12, 2025 at 12:33 PM
"the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa"
October 9, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Oh nothing, just our cat entering Dark Mode
October 7, 2025 at 4:19 PM
#42
Grave of the Fireflies (Akiyuki Nosaka, 1967)

Brutal and uncompromising short novella about two war orphans during the 1945 firebombing of Kobe. I have not yet seen the Ghibli version, so cannot compare, but this was a bleak - if riveting - affair

#booksky 📚🖋️
October 7, 2025 at 1:39 PM
SPSS, R, Stata
October 7, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Australian remake of that famed Rodriguez/Tarantino flick is much mellower
October 6, 2025 at 12:44 PM
#41
Cult X (Fuminori Nakamura, 2014)

Yawn.
If mansplaining was a book. Gratuitous sex scenes (emphasis on gratuitous), cringe dialogues, paper-thin plot, unrealistic world building, and interminable exposition. It was supposed to be thrilling & edgy, but I was often bored to death.
Skip

#booksky
October 6, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Totally normal cat
October 5, 2025 at 5:33 AM
This one I felt. Weak, in Tokyo. But very, very weird feeling
October 4, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Please do not park in front of the shooting stars
September 28, 2025 at 1:43 AM
#40
On the Calculation of Volume II (Solvej Balle, 2020)

Second part of this genre-bending story of a woman stuck in time. Thought-provoking, heartfelt, but perhaps getting a bit repetitive. Curious nonetheless where this story goes, especially after the reveal in the very last pages

#booksky 📚🖋️
September 26, 2025 at 12:39 PM