Ron Charles

In a shocking revelation Friday morning, The Washington Post‘s Ron Charles revealed to his readers that a trite tweet he had made mocking new book Sex at Dawn lead to an actual conversation… with the author.  And I mean conversation, in the true sense of the word.  There was no screaming, ranting, insulting or any other sort of heated speech.  Rather, Charles and the author, Christopher Ryan, actually engaged each other in civil, nay, polite, discourse!

A sampling below:

Ron Charles: Thank you for your gracious note, which is more than I deserved. If the short bit in the Sunday Post was unnuanced, then a tweet based on that short bit is probably pretty close to worthless, so you’re wise not to lose any sleep over it. More than ever, all publicity is good.

Christopher Ryan: Maybe it’s a sign of my not having fully joined the Twittering classes, but I felt like an interloper responding to your tweet. Please don’t let my barging in dissuade you from future pithy dismissals in 140 characters or less!

Ron Charles: I have to say, though, that I’m fundamentally suspicious of applying “anthropological and biological evidence” to what are essentially moral and ethic concerns.

Christopher Ryan: Me too. One of my concerns about how our book will be received involves the fact that the paradigm of human sexual evolution we present isn’t cleanly aligned with either of the opposing camps in the endless debates over human nature. Everyone from Steven Pinker to Naomi Wolf will find plenty to scoff at, so we’re not likely to attract many natural allies, I fear. But to your point, “moral and ethic concerns” don’t arise spontaneously, right? Although they are generally spun as if they were eternal and immutable laws (the word of God), it’s clear that moral concerns reflect deeper cultural forces–normally economic, I’d argue. One way, albeit not the only way, to investigate these deeper issues involves the application of anthropological and biological evidence.

And then, *shock*, they continue to discuss the core arguments of the book as well!  Engagement!  Via email!

So maybe the internet won’t lead to polite society’s doom after all… Happy Monday dear readers 🙂