"though a day be as dense as a decade"

(292.4-294.5)  As I mentioned in concluding yesterday's post, today we reach the end of the extended parenthetical and return to Kevin's geometry problem.  The rest of the parenthetical serves as a kind of apology for Dolph's behavior and, by extension, for Joyce's behavior in writing the Wake.  The narrator references the diagrams or theorems in "that most improving of roundshows, Spice and Westend Woman."  As all of my secondary sources note, this is a reference to Wyndham Lewis' Time and Western Man, which included material critical of Joyce.  

Basically, the narrator's saying there is no use in railing against the actions of Dolph (and Joyce).  People are going to do what they do, after all.  And what's more, even assuming that we were "decontaminated enough" to look inside the brain of Dolph/Joyce, we would see an overwhelming collection of memories, forgotten lands, and lost languages.  And our own minds would reel to see the new ways in which Dolph/Joyce uses stale words.  Ultimately, we rely upon the rudimentary learning we gained via the "pupilteachertaut duplex," and we have to concede that, even though "a day be as dense as a decade" and we have all the time in the world, we're unable to transpose our language onto one we can't understand, and we end up having to draw the line somewhere.  This could be Joyce saying that we're never going to be able to make heads or tales of the Wake.  He wrote the book for it to be read, though, so I look at this passage more as a challenge that tries to incite us to put forth the effort to expand our minds.  (I think this could also be Joyce mocking those who, like Lewis, thought it was a waste of time to try to understand Joyce's books.)  Anyway, I get a kick out of this passage, and it affirms what I'm trying to do with this blog (I guess).

This ends the long parenthetical, and on page 293 we go back to Kevin's geometry problem.  But while the parenthetical was being delivered, Kevin has Morpheus (here "Murphy") has dragged Kevin to sleep, and he's drifted off into a dream (here a "dozedeam") of Dublin.  Dolph wakes him up, and Kevin attempts to solve the problem, saying, "Allow me!"  This page represents the point in the chapter that Shaun and Shem's margin commentary switches, with Shem now commenting in the capital letters on the right and Shaun commenting in the italics on the left.  Shaun titles this passage, "Uteralterance or the Interplay of Bones in the Womb."  So, this deals with the uterus and the battle between Shem and Shaun that began before they were born.  We also get the figure of the problem on this page:

The text beginning below the diagram more clearly shows that the problem touches upon what I'll call "carnal geometry," for the figure represents the boys' mother, ALP.  Kevin notes that "A is for Anna like L is for liv."  In a sense, this line is a timeline, representing the whole of human history:  "Aha hahah, Ante Ann you're apt to ape aunty annalive!  Dawn gives rise.  Lo, lo, lives love!  Eve takes fall.  La, la, laugh leaves alass!  Aiaiaiai, Antiann, we're last to the lost, Loulou!"  Ante (before) Ann mimcs her ape ancestor, from whom she's evolved.  Alternately, humankind is created in the image of God at dawn, falls via Eve, and loses Eden.  Kevin notes that this AL "strayedline" appears in the figure above and depicts part of his mother:  "(in Fig., the forest)."  McHugh notes that "fig" is slang for "cunt," and Campbell and Robinson note that "the forest" indicates that the line is the boundary line of the pubic hair.  So, today's reading accordingly concludes with fairly straightforward indication that the geometry problem touches upon ALP's genitalia (um . . . apologies for that pun).