Washington Post Book World editor Ron Charles received an unexpected response after posting to Twitter that the book Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality sounded “trite”: One of the book’s authors, Christopher Ryan, read it and got in touch with him.
In a surprisingly civil conversation, Charles and Ryan discuss the suspicions that led Charles to dismiss the book via Twitter. (In short: Charles hasn’t read the book, but he thinks some of its assertions seem flimsy; Ryan assures him that he devotes entire chapters to “laying out precisely what we’re arguing against.”)
In the end, they don’t seem to come to an agreement but they settle on two nice conclusions: It was unfair of Charles to take a potshot at the book via Twitter, but, as they say, all publicity is good publicity.