One thing the blog explosion’s done is give authors who feel they’ve been wronged by reviews the chance to vent in public. And Warren Kinsella, the political strategist who’s just released a history of punk rock called Fury’s Hour with Random House Canada, has served up a particularly unpleasant instance of venting.

In Saturday’s Globe and Mail, music columnist Carl Wilson took unflattering notice of Fury’s Hour. In response, Kinsella has unleashed a squall of furious personal name-calling on his blog (see earliest August 27 entry) that’s so over-the-top you wonder if it isn’t some Andy Kaufman-style hoax. Kinsella refers to Wilson as “this pompous moron,” “insanely jealous of my book,” “some loser,” and, in a follow-up entry, a “prissy, preening, pretentious prat.”

He also throws in a homophobic slur for good measure, and so far his final word on the subject is a dig at the name of Wilson’s own website: “‘Zoilus’? Not quite. More like Soils Himself. Tit.”

Charming and funny.

Related links:
Click here for Carl Wilson’s Globe and Mail column on Kinsella’s book
Click here for Kinsella’s response (see earliest entry for August 27)
Click here for Wilson’s response to Kinsella’s response
Click here for another blogger’s weigh-in on the issue