Yusuf Toropov's Blog: Literary Striver, page 5

Details behind the multiple times TRUMP has been accused of rape or attempted rape

Trump has been accused multiple times of this kind of assault. This alleged pattern of behavior should be MAJOR national mainstream news. It is not -- but only because the Fascist candidate has ordered that it should not be, and CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the NEW YORK TIMES (among others) are obeying Trump's orders not to push the story.Get used to that controlling-what-can-and-can't-be-said-by-reporters thing if Trump wins.There are three alleged incidents to consider, all adding up to one...

Arrest this man. No. I'm not kidding, @SecretService

Trump: Clinton's bodyguards should drop weapons 'and let's see what happens to her.'

Make No Mistake: Clinton Is Under Attack Because She Is a Woman (#ImWithHer) (#video)

Hillary Clinton has now become the target of the broadest, ugliest, coarsest, and longest-running character assassination/disinformation campaign in modern American political history. Click the image below for proof of this, but don't watch the video while the kids are around.



Make no mistake. This series of sexist attacks is intensifying ... but not because of any specific policy misstep that Clinton's opponents can elucidate. (In an interesting parallel development, the Trump campaign's seni...

Edward Wilson's stellar intellectual thriller A VERY BRITISH ENDING

It's a fascinating question, whether the latest Edward Wilson spy novel A VERY BRITISH ENDING would be as smart, vigorous, engaging, and downright delightful a read without us all having easy access to the Internet. Fortunately, I don't have to answer that question.

This is a book custom-built for the smart-phone era, the era when you can think "Better look that up," launch a Google search, and expect to get a clearer sense, within a few seconds, of who actually did what, when, in real life. M...

Why Is Trump Hiding His Taxes?

Please post and repost this image hourly. 


The US mainstream news media is under-reporting this story.

The Fascist candidate is hiding his financial history. In so doing he is ignoring an important precedent of the modern American democratic process.

ORWELL matters more than STALIN.

ORWELL MATTERS MORE THAN STALIN. It may not have seemed so at the time but it was always true. 

ROWLING MATTERS MORE THAN TRUMP.

TED WILSON MATTERS MORE THAN BORIS JOHNSON.

And, dammit, ISLAMIC NOIR MATTERS MORE THAN ISIS.

Literature is an appropriate response to extremism, fascism, nationalism gone mad, and genocide.




By reading and writing fiction that celebrates intellectual freedom, empathy, and diversity, we are AT THIS MOMENT creating the possibility of coexistence in the Middle Eas...

Literature: The Appropriate Response to Extremism

By reading and writing fiction that celebrates empathy and diversity, we are creating the possibility of coexistence in the Middle East, USA, and Europe via a powerful global conversation about literature and tolerance.



"For decades it's been known that an effective means of improving negative attitudes and prejudices between differing groups of people is through intergroup contact – particularly through contact between 'in-groups,' or a social group to which someone identifies, and 'out-...

George Orwell, My Hero, Posited Six Rules for Writing

A famous and beloved set of guidelines. The first is demanding but essential; the second does not mean "dumb down your text" (something Orwell doesn't do); the third does not mean "only write in short sentences" (something Orwell doesn't do); the fourth adds energy and power and specificity to your prose; the fifth is simple common sense; the sixth makes you, the writer, responsible for avoiding barbarity. If only politicians made a point of observing all six.

The Truth about Muslims and Sex Slavery, via Mariam Hakim.

"Rape and sexual violence is not permitted in Islamic texts...in early Muslim communities rape was a crime punishable by death."

If you have heard otherwise, please see this fine, exhaustively researched article by Mariam Hakim.

Cunk on Shakespeare

This was hilarious, and for some reason it's on YouTube.


In this fearless, clueless documentary, Philomena Cunk explores the legacy of the Bard of Avon, and falls prey to an occasional factual error. Enjoy it while it's up... click here.