The latest online shouting match is between U.S. author Steve Almond (Candyfreak, My Life in Heavy Metal) and litblogger Mark Sarvas. Seems that since launching his site (called The Elegant Variation) in 2003, Sarvas has made a couple unflattering remarks about Almond’s work, including one reference to “overheated prose stylings” and another to “my loathing for Steve Almond.”

According to Almond, this constitutes “two years of sustained slander,” and now, in a massive five-page article on Salon, the author has attacked Sarvas and detailed their brief face-to-face encounters at a California literary festival. (Sarvas mostly avoided Almond, which the latter presents as evidence of cowardice.) Almond also suggests that most litblogs have little value and that Sarvas must simply be bitter and jealous. His masterstroke, though, is a recurring riff on the charming and witty (“homophobic,” shurely?) idea that Sarvas’s animosity toward his work can only be explained by a repressed sexual attraction.

On Sarvas’s site, the comments are flowing in, and most of them (at this writing, anyway) are in support of Almond. The U.S. book blog Galleycat, though, has this to say: “though Sarvas couldn’t quite convince me that Almond was self-absorbed, Almond’s 4,300+ words devoted to what it feels like to be resented by the little people just might do the trick.” (Scroll down for the item entitled “Breaking Out the Dread Rubber-Glue Gambit.”)

Related links:
Click here for Steve Almond’s Salon story
Click here for comments on the Elegant Variation site
Click here for Galleycat