An Update On My Book

Since its release in early January, my book How to Read Like a Parasite has managed to start conversations on various podcasts, from The Nietzsche Podcast, Repeater Books, Give Them An Argument with Ben Burgis, Midwestern Marx with Carlos Garrido, 1Dime Radio, Converging Dialogues, Samsara Diagnostics, the New Books Network to the Re/al/ign show with Rhyd Wildermuth along with others. The French Marxist philosopher Aymeric Monville has recently mentioned and discussed my book in a recent talk entitled Misère du Nietzschéisme de gauche. Each conversation is enjoyable in its own way because the host has in nearly every case read my book carefully and they thus bring out singular concerns from their perspective. Check out all the interviews on my playlist New Directions in Nietzschean Studies.

Jacobin, the leading socialist magazine in the U.S. has recently published an interview on the book, entitled Why Nietzsche Hated Socialism. This gave me a chance to really qualify the historical perspective that I am bringing out in my book and it was a chance to get at the heart of my core arguments. I’m very happy to go on most any show and talk about my book and the new reading of Nietzsche it aims to open, so feel free to reach out to me should you be interested in discussing the book.

It was a very enjoyable experience to present the book at the University of Virginia and at various bookstores. As a friend recently noted, my book is very much written for a general audience, he said it felt like an airport book in its readability. I tried my best to make the book very accessible to non-academic readers, while also keeping a foot within academic rigor. I had three Nietzsche specialists read the book and numerous philosophers. The specialists were not reading for citational accuracy in terms of page numbers or dates on books that I cite, they read for overall accuracy of my core arguments. And in that regard, I really benefited from the input of Nietzsche specialists (you can see their names in the testimonials and blurbs within the book).

My very talented copyeditor at Repeater Books helped enhance the writing quality and prose style, but there were footnoting errors that appear in the book, mainly a couple misattributed citations, and errors of dates and page numbers. This was due to my errors and to the fact that my publisher did not make these simple corrections, a common miscommunication for a relatively small publisher. But I have confirmed with Repeater Books that these citational errors will be corrected for a new version of the book. Thankfully, these errors have no bearing on the argument of the book, and I am excited to iron them out so that the book can continue to reach people.

In a separate post I will address my left-Nietzschean critics, but it should be noted that they have halted their critique of my book at the second chapter, with a promise that a fuller critique of the historical context is coming which aims to challenge my portrayal of Nietzsche’s historical context. I am not holding my breath that they will produce a critique on the rest of my book. The critique against me has completely distorted my arguments around class theory, and have sought to depict my Marxist views as something totally inaccurate to what I actually state in the book. Those are willful misreadings and they stem from a deep frustration with what the implications my book leaves for anyone on the left that wants to continue to place Nietzsche at the center of the left. It is important to state that my book is building on the back of Losurdo and Lukács who both provide such an elaborate historical context to Nietzsche’s time that it will be very difficult for them to wage the critique they wish to wage. Stay tuned for a more elaborate response in due course.

Interviews and Discussions

New Substack: Daniel’s Journal

I will be changing things up here and taking my shorter writing to Substack. If you like my writings and want to follow more of my latest research, please subscribe to my newly launched Substack. I’m planning to write more personal pieces on the Substack and share some of my research for my latest book project on class theory, Marxism and psychoanalysis.

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