Editing Level 7 (novel) (section)

==Structure==
The book is apparently written in such a way to discourage the reader from determining which side is which.<ref name="Brians-1987" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Roshwald |first=Mordecai |editor-last=Seed |editor-first=David |title=Level 7 |year=2004 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=Madison |series=Library of American Fiction |isbn=978-0-299-20063-3 |page=x |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLfgLkV33TUC&pg=PR9}}</ref> References to [[democracy]] are structured as to be just as applicable to [[Soviet democracy]] as to [[Politics of the United Kingdom|British]] or [[American democracy]]. The book contains no geographical references or individual names, but does use non-[[Metric system|metric]] measurements. It is left to the individual reader to determine if this indeed identifies a Western setting or merely reflects the author's background. In any case, specific national identities are arguably irrelevant to the book's themes of dehumanization, the abstraction of nuclear warfare, and the danger that this leads to when combined with the destructive potential of the weapons involved. The novel thus acts as a warning against the [[nuclear arms race]], as the original (but later removed) postscript makes clear:

{{blockquote|This book is neutral - in the sense that it does not defend either the East or the West. It is not neutral in the sense that it accuses both. It is submitted for the benefit of the West and the East, as well as anybody caught in between.}}

{{blockquote|The Diary of [[Push-Button]] Officer X-127 is intended as a preventative anti-radioactive medicine, good for consumption in any place in the world. It is especially offered to button-pushers, rocket constructors, nuclear physicists, megaton bomb manufacturers, "small" atomic bomb producers, and last but not least, statesmen and politicians. It is 'not' (!) effective against buttons, robots, rockets, and the bombs themselves.}}

Originally, the manuscript contained a preface by [[Martian]] [[archaeologist]]s, who discover the diary amongst the ruins of a destroyed Earth. However, this was removed in editions published before 2003 because it was felt that it spoiled the ending of the book.