VLVL2 (9.5): "Puncutron Machine"

[Dave Monroe]

"The trio proceeded to the Retreat Clinic, Sister
Rochelle's pride and joy, home of the notorious
Puncutron Machine.
   "'Got to get that chi back flowing the right way,
now.'
   "Takeshi looked around.  It was an airy structure,
once a barn,redivided into treatment rooms here and
there but dominated by the machine, some of whose
extensions rose as high as two stories.  One of the
many therapeutic devices sold freely in California at
the time, the Puncutron, though not encouraging for
many patients to look at, had in the health community
its share of intense loyalists.  Detractors included
the ever-vigilant FDA, one step ahead of whom the
Puncutron's proucers had so far just managed to keep. 
It was clear that electricity in unkown amounts was
meant to be routed from one of its glittering parts to
another until it arrived as any or all of a number of
decorative-looking terminals, 'or actually,' purred
the Ninjette Puncutron Technicuian who would be using
it on Takeshi, 'as we like to call them, electrodes.'"

(VL, Ch. 9, pp. 163-4)

Note personification, machine "whose," FDA "whom" ...


"Puncutron Machine"

p. 164 "Puncutron"    An imaginary therapeutic device
whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern
medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western
technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in
there, too.

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter9.htm

Cf. ...

Franz Kafka, "In the Penal Colony" (1919) ...

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/kafka/strafkol/strafkol.htm

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalcolony.htm

http://www.geocities.com/univbelkafka/penalcolony.htm

http://www.tragleart.com/colony.htm

http://neuro.ohbi.net/e12/in_the_penal_colony_kafka.htm

And see esp. ...

Porush, David.  "'Purring into Transcendence':
   Pynchon's Puncutron Machine."  The Vineland
   Papers: Critical Takes on Pynchon's Novel.
   Eds. G. Green, D.J. Greiner and L. McCaffery.
   Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive, 1994.  31-45

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0311&msg=87297&sort=date

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0311&msg=87298&sort=date

Thanks, Tim!  But to continue ...


"chi back flowing the right way"

Chi, or vital life energy, flows through our body's
energy meridians or channels. The energy flow of the
meridians affect each of the body's major organ
systems.

[...]

Stress and tension stagnates or blocks the flow of
chi, resulting in illness and disease.

http://www.geocities.com/lotusheartent/taichi.html

Chi Machine

http://www.thechimachine.com/

http://www.healinghealth.info/chi4info.htm

http://www.allaboutmassagers.com/chi_compare.php

http://www.a1chimachines.com/


"One of the many therapeutic devices sold freely in
California at the time"

http://www.mtn.org/quack/devices/devindx.htm

E.g. ...

http://www.mtn.org/quack/devices/magneto.htm

http://www.mtn.org/quack/devices/eleclinx.htm

As well as ...

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/electro.html

   Government regulation of medical gadgetry began in
earnest in 1938 with the passage of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Further restrictions were
levied by the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 and
the Safe Medical Devices Act of 1990. But gadget
hucksterism continues to this day, with many
individuals testifying to the miraculous healing they
receive from devices, persons, icons, chemicals, and
foods. The late actor Steve McQueen believed coffee
enemas would cure his cancer; Peter Sellers engaged
"psychic surgeons" in the Philippines, finally
resorting to legitimate physicians--too late.

http://www.quackmedicine.com/


"the ever-vigilant FDA"

http://www.fda.gov/


p. 164 "Detractors included ... managed to keep."   A
silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax
for no discernible reason

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter9.htm


"from one of its glittering parts to another"

http://www.maarasuniverse.com/darkside/Torture.jpg

http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/pics/droid.jpg


"or actually"

Main Entry: elec·trode 
Pronunciation: i-'lek-"trOd
Function: noun
Date: 1834
1 : a conductor used to establish electrical contact
with a nonmetallic part of a circuit
2 : an element in a semiconductor device (as a
transistor) that emits or collects electrons or holes
or controls their movements

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

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