In the prelude to his first novel, Johnson states that he wanted to write a novel that would expose its mechanism. He realized that it would be desirable to have interludes between chapters in which "I could stand back, so to speak, from my novel, and talk about it with the reader, or with those parts of myself which might hold different opinions, if necessary; and in which technical questions could be considered, and quotations from other writers included, where relevant, without any question of destroying the reader's suspension of disbelief, since such suspension was not to be attempted." He adds, "I should be determined not to lead my reader into believing that he was doing anything but reading a novel..."Such interludes are placed between chapters in this book and are marked by poetically designed layouts (the book was designed by Johnson) and liberal use of Italic typeface. The eight interludes comprise the descriptions mentioned in the prelude including among others technical questions, quotations, and drama. Sexual intercouse is signified by abstract blocks of photocopied or op-art images printed on the lower-third of page 211, all of page 212, and two-thirds of page 213 or completely black printed blocks on two-thirds of page 224 and all of pages 225-226. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.