When Savran seems to eavesdrop on the Group’s discussion of homosexuality in Leary’s circle (pg 182), he makes no attempt to give his readers a steered interview.
(Sometimes Savran does speak in the interviews, as when he draws out the different aspects of Ken Kobland’s choices for the video content (pg 210).)
He gives us a transcript of a whirling conversation that at first seems "off-topic" but becomes a tool for Savran to redefine his role as a writer. The group's discussion of rumors about Leary’s sexual politics isn’t immediately obvious as a crucial part of a critical discourse—but Savran uses this moment to re-orient the reader’s relationship to his topic. The fact that these artists gossip about the topic makes it a part of their oeuvre. The fact that Savran has documented it makes it a part of their history.
Breaking the Rules can no longer be seen as a tidy critical essay or a simple eulogy for L.S.D. The piece becomes a messy scrapheap of evidence that has been brushed with a critical gloss. In this moment of embracing the tangent, Savran changes the entire scale of his essay. Then, he slides gracefully back into his previous discourse, content to leave the tangent as it is and was.