 The time machine, as described, works mystically as well as scientifically.This sort of synthesis of modes of speculative fiction (and of MacGuffins) is typical of Powers's combined-science-fiction-and-fantasy novels.The Chaplin film has been recorded over a commercial VHS tape of "Pee-wee's Big Adventure"; when Daphne watches it, she reacts with such horror and fear that she strikes out pyrokinetically and burns both the tape and her teddy bear in her bedroom upstairs.