6:56 AM View on a Good Friday

 Reading Finnegan’s Wake, I came upon a word “kathlins “.

I asked the A.I. about it and my last name:

Good — you’re picking up on something very interesting. Joyce plays “kathlins” and “kaulins” against each other deliberately in Finnegans Wake. Let’s take it slow:

• Kathlins, like we said, suggests Kathleen (Ireland, feminine, tender) and maybe Catholicism (religion, national identity).
• Kaulins sounds rougher. It echoes Caulins or Collins, another Irish name — but also hints at “caul” (the thin membrane covering a newborn’s head at birth, often seen as magical in folklore).
• Phonetically, “Kaulins” could suggest colon (as in colonization) or even coal (something black, heavy — burdened).

Together:

Joyce often contrasts soft/life-giving images (Kathlins) with heavier/darker/colonial images (Kaulins). It becomes a kind of tension:

• Kathlins = light, Irish femininity, birth, innocence, nationalism
• Kaulins = darkness, death, burden, colonial trauma, masculine oppression

Also, K and C sounds (Kath-/Caul-) are twisted in Finnegans Wake to reflect transformation, decay, or renewal — depending on the passage.

Big Picture:

When Joyce puts “kathlins and kaulins” together, he’s riffing on Ireland’s double identity: the dream of a pure nation (Kathlins) and the heavy history of colonialism, death, and rebirth (Kaulins). It’s almost like two sides of the same coin.