Oedipa's experience with the machine is that she is told that it will unlock the ability for her to move the piston with her mind. The explanation for how it works can easily be taken as an explanation of the expectations of a novel.
"Communication is the key" Nefastis says as he begins to describe the process (84). The "billions of molecules" can be seen as words and letters in a novel. Just as Nefastis explains how the molecules are interpreted on a psychic level, so too must the reader interpret of thousands of words and millions of letters to make sense of the whole. In the process of trying to perform the necessary mental actions on the piston, she thinks she has done it but only finds her initial reaction false. The novel reads much in the same way. The reader constantly expects a meaning to become clear and, at times, the novel seems to be heading in the right direction only to have it take an unexpected turn. The images of Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla and Peter Potamus (85) all act to demonstrate how the novel consistently thwarts the reader with trivia and bizarre pop culture rather than acquire the specific result.
Even Nefastis helps act as a symbol of this misleading. in explaining the demon, he constantly loses Oedipa's understanding and, when she fails to move the piston, Nefastis's seeming comfort only turns out to be a sexual advance (86). The novel leads the reader on, posturing the idea that there will be an explanation before yanking the presumption out from underneath the reader.
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