Brietbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos has been one of the more prominent names in the #GamerGate movement, writing numerous articles regarding "SJW types ruining every platform they touch". He also self-published a book of poetry in 2007 called Eskimo Papoose under the name Milo Andreas Wagner, but it turns out that it may not be so much a work of poetry as a bizarre mix tape of Tori Amos lyrics.
The contents of the book were shared by former football punter Chris Kluwe, a noted opponent of #GamerGate, via Storify with supplemental commentary. Reading through the pages a dedicated Tori fan will notice some of her more famous lines appearing in the poems.
In the second chapter of "Nympholepsy, Part 1" appears the line "I was looking for a Saviour / Beneath these dirty sheets", which is a misquoted part of the chorus from Tori's "Crucify" from Little Earthquakes. In "Sword of Vengeance" he uses the line "Muhammad my friend / I'm getting very scared" from Boys for Pele. Other poems pull lyrics from "Sparks" and "Blood Roses", all without attribution.
When confronted with accusations of plagiarism on Twitter Yiannopoulos freely admitted that the collection was made up of other people's words, and that it was an example of "sampling" like in music.
"There isn't a line in the whole thing that isn't from somewhere else. That's obviously the point," said Yiannopoulos. "You actually, really believe that it could possibly be anything but a giant pisstake? That it could be 'deception'? Really?"
There is no indication anywhere in the book that Eskimo Papoose is meant to be taken satirically or be a "joke book" as Yiannopoulos also claims. His acknowledgement page thanks Tori under her birth name, Myra Ellen Amos, for her inspiration. The editor's foreward also mentions that a bibliographical concordance for texts mentioned in footnotes is available upon request, but none of the lifted lyrics appear to be footnoted.
The only place in the book that seems to give any indication of Yiannopoulos's claim of anything other than a work intended to be perceived as original is in the appropriately titled "Confession". Lines include "How do we learn / But by theft?" and "Nothing in this book is true / I made it all up". He also refers to the book as his "borrowed swansong" in the poem.
Tori is not the only artist to have her work repurposed in Yiannopoulos's tome. Lines from Britney Spears and Mariah Carey are inserted into stanzas. Perhaps the weirdest lifted quote comes from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Fool for Love". Yiannopoulos includes a famous non sequitur from the vampire Drusilla, "The King of cups expects a picnic / But this is not his birthday." An odd choice considering Buffy was created by the notoriously feminist Joss Whedon, who said via Twitter regarding #GamerGate, "Many good people think #GamerGate is about journalism & artistic freedom. That's like working at #KlanDayKare. The name means hate, guys."
Yiannopoulos is currently writing a book about #GamerGate.
