I think that it would have had less emotional impact, but that I would still have found it disturbing. I can't be sure of that, of course, but my reaction to it was different to the reaction I have to a negative but dispassionate review of a book by someone I know personally.

I still think that my view of it, coming in cold, was different to the way the participants saw it. Reading through it as a transcript rather than in real time, those rapid-fire reactions and comments back look like a competition to see who can come up with the wittiest remark, in a context where witty becomes snarky, and not just about the book itself.