Scott’s answer to “In your Nyxia triad your protagonist is involved in immoral acts and scenes. Why did you involve th…” > Likes and Comments

Three major notes. Firstly, I do find lies, attempted murder, etc. immoral. While the word immoral does technically apply to these it is most often used to refer to sexual impurity. In addition, these are mostly done by the villains of the story and are an aspect of the story that forwards the plot of the story. I can understand why you would link these things together as all immoral. The main reason I point out, and I suspect that others who have issues with this point it out, is that murder and deceit are generally though of as evil while the worlds viewpoints on sexual behavior is in so many ways conflicted. Part of why I made the quick assumption that the scene progressed in that way is that in most stories from modern society a scene like that would definitely imply sexual intercourse. Also, the surrounding narrative makes it seem as if Emmett is going to do something of importance and "making out" seems so random, ridiculous, and meaningless. I believe that sexual intercourse outside of marital bonds is worse than meaningless, but it does have repercussions and "making out" does not seem to have any fundamental impacts, in my view.
Secondly, you make a point of this being realistic. I cannot disagree, with society being the way it now is, but fiction is inherently unrealistic. I can understand the desire to cast as powerful an "illusion of reality" as possible. However, I also believe that there are definitely more important things than reality. You can't force people to conform to your views, but shouldn't whatever your views and beliefs are affect all that you do, write, say, and are? Which is why I included the last part of the question, about your personal beliefs. Your views and beliefs (such as what your role is as an author) are inevitably woven into the way you live, but wouldn't you want to clearly show others exactly what you believe so that, maybe, they can think in similar ways to you, as we both did in this brief correspondence? I don't know if I was able to say exactly what I tried to say here, but I hope so.
This brings me to my third note: What is your job as an author? What are stories for if not to express themes? Is entertainment really of any importance to the world alone?
And I do ask this of other authors if there is a simple a way to do so, such as this "Ask the Author" function of goodreads.
Thank you for answering my question as thoroughly as you could. And for the larger part I did enjoy the rest of the Nixia Triad. You are a talented writer, even if our views are different.
I would also like to invite you to ponder what, exactly, your views and beliefs are.

I believe Mr. Reintgen handled that very well, the topic of coitus is a very sensitive one and people can easily become greatly offended, good job on handling it, but also Gideon, I believe this is an inappropriate place to reference such topics as coitus.
thanks for writing a great series scott

Carter, why is goodreads an inappropriate place to discuss what is included in books? And why do you believe it is an "inappropriate place to reference such topics as coitus"? What makes a topic something that should be evicted from any place of discussion? I don't think that your comment makes you a bad person, but what your saying can be a major problem in society. The right to speak and discuss is or paramount importance to civilization. But nobody has to. And as I said in my previous comment, the simple "Ask the Author" function of goodreads provides an extremely convenient method for me to ask a question of somebody who evidence suggests will be able to answer my question. How is it wrong to ask Scott Reintgen a question I have for Scott Reintgen? This channel of inquiry has been used to make simple comments to authors about their books, so why is it wrong for me to ask a question?

There are minors on this site who have not learned about reproduction

Carter, there are also hundreds of books on this site that are centered around acts of coitus. Look at the new releases list for any month. Outside of this site, tt is plastered on walls and billboards. There are scenes dedicated to it in novels and movies. And schools have specific classes dedicated to such information. If this question is any ones first introduction to the topic they will likely not understand it enough to be affected by it, and it is extremely unlikely to happen. If somebody is scrolling through the questions asked on this platform, not yet having looked at the upcoming releases, or seen an inappropriate movie trailer, or advertisement, or heard about it at school or from friends or family, and sees this question, then goes on a information gathering spree on this topic, than it would have happened sooner or later. And if this happens to be their first introduction then they will probably see that this is a subject of controversy, rather than finding it somewhere that presents it as the greatest pleasure, or even as the most abominable sin. I definitely do not think this would be the worst place for anyone to learn about this topic, and I very much doubt that it will be.

listen, we are all here to talk about books and authors, I do not want to fight about anything on this site