How to Read Like a Parasite

A how-to guide for the left on how to overcome Nietzsche's divisive and damaging influence.

"Beautifully written and bursting with spirit, How to Read Like a Parasite is destined to be vital reading." - Matthew McManus, author of Nietzsche and the Politics of Reaction

How to Read Like a Parasite is a critical guide for the left, showing how to overcome Nietzsche's divisive influence and avoid falling prey to his reactionary politics.

Key insights include:

- A thorough critique of the popular, apolitical interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy
- Analysis of core Nietzschean concepts like perspectivism, ressentiment, and the eternal return
- Historical context of Nietzsche's life and works, revealing a sophisticated reactionary political vision at the heart of his ideas
- Case studies of prominent left-Nietzscheans, including Jack London, Gilles Deleuze, Wendy Brown, and Huey Newton

This book provides a clear path for the left to read and engage with Nietzsche without adopting his harmful ideological underpinnings.“A compelling picture of the ways that Nietzscheanism hijacks the left.”
— Jan Rehmann, author of Deconstructing Postmodernist Nietzscheanism: Deleuze and Foucault

"Beautifully written and bursting with spirit, How to Read Like a Parasite is destined to be vital reading."
— Matthew McManus, author of Nietzsche and the Politics of Reaction

"Written with clarity and force, sensitive to historical context and covering an extensive array of the Nietzsche literature, this book animates a new standard in reading Nietzsche.”
— Don Dombowsky, author of Nietzsche and Napoleon: The Dionysian Conspiracy

"Exemplary... Tutt’s evaluation of the consequences of Nietzschean politics is more lucid than Left Nietzscheans might wish."
— Ray Brassier, author of Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction

"Today, in our age of quick new Right or new Left dismissals, such a stance is needed more than ever."
— Slavoj Žižek

"The conclusion of How to Read Like a Parasite is that a ruthless, even “parasitical” critique of Nietzsche, who cannot be ignored but must be constantly confronted head on, is the key to overcoming the destruction of reason in our time."
— John Bellamy Foster, author of The Dialectics of Ecology

"Tutt’s book sets a new standard for understanding how to read Nietzsche from the political left."
— Carl Sachs, author of Nietzsche Between Scientism and Irrationalism
"Daniel Tutt avoids both traps that haunt Leftist readings of Nietzsche: a quick condemnation of Nietzsche as an irrationalist precursor of Fascism, and the elevation of Nietzsche into a philosopher of new authentic life who was falsely appropriated by the extreme Right. Tutt doesn’t achieve this by way of playing the safe middle ground – on the contrary, he first fully assumes the Nietzschean standpoint, recounting his own experience of its liberating aspect, and then gradually brings out the illusory character of this liberation. In the full sense of the term he knows what he is talking about: in his critique of Nietzsche, he settles the account with his own past illusions. Today, in our age of quick new Right or new Left dismissals, such a stance is needed more than ever."

Slavoj Žižek

“…this book animates a new standard in reading Nietzsche.”
Don Dombowsky, author of Nietzsche and NapoleonDaniel Tutt is a philosopher and educator based in Washington, DC. He writes on Marxism, philosophy, and psychoanalysis and has taught philosophy at George Washington University, the Washington, DC jail and Marymount University. Tutt is a podcaster with Repeater and Zer0 Books. His first book, Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family (2022) is published with the Palgrave Lacan Series and has been hailed by philosopher Isabel Millar as “essential reading.”