{"id":4317,"date":"2021-02-14T10:59:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T17:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=4317"},"modified":"2021-02-14T10:59:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T17:59:34","slug":"friendship-dialogues-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/4317","title":{"rendered":"Friendship Dialogues #1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the sequel to Relationship Interview #9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mark is sixty-four and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite the strictures of the pandemic, he had five dates with Bernice, who is fifty-seven, before the focus of their connection shifted from possibly having a relationship to becoming friends. In the process of making this shift, Mark met Bernice\u2019s closest friends Angela, sixty-three, and Marlene, sixty, and now Mark is becoming friends with Angela and Marlene, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs much as we like each other,\u201d Mark explains in a phone conversation with his pal Alex, \u201cit seems highly unlikely that Bernice and I will end up in a relationship, though it seems likely we\u2019ll be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you feel about that?\u201d asks\nAlex, who has been married to Denise for thirty-seven years and has no female\nfriends other than Denise\u2019s friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel fine,\u201d says Mark, who wasn\u2019t\nlooking for new friends when he started using Find the One, the relationship\nweb site where he met Bernice. \u201cThough part of me must still be hoping for a\nrelationship with her because when I logged in to Find the One yesterday to\nperuse the latest possibilities, I felt like I was cheating on her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex laughs. \u201cSpoken like a true\nmonogamist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday dawns sunny and unusually\nwarm for March, and Mark uses the prospect of lunch at Marlene\u2019s as his carrot for\nputting in a couple hours editing a whodunit, after which he makes a big batch\nof guacamole for the upcoming lunch with his three new friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice arrives at Mark\u2019s house at 11:30\nand she and Mark walk the mile to Marlene\u2019s together. She\u2019s wearing a summery\nturquoise dress and a dark green mask and schlepps a big round basket\ncontaining salad and tortilla chips and Mark\u2019s guacamole as they traverse neighborhoods\nof mostly older houses, the majority of the inhabitants Internet Technology\npeeps who supplanted the blue collar families that abided here before the dawn\nof the digital age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are both happy and relaxed, the\nself-imposed pressure of trying to impress each other mostly gone now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: You look marvelous as always.\nWho does your hair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: (laughs) Before the\npandemic, I would only<\/em> go to Francois\nat Tricky Curls, but since the closures I\u2019ve allowed Marlene to make two\nattempts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Looks fine to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Well she is<\/em> a great artist. Who cuts your hair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Before the pandemic, Denise did.\nWife of my pal Alex. She\u2019s French, too. So we both have French haircutters. But\nsince the pandemic began, I go to some guy I meet at my mirror every few months.\nWe communicate telepathically and he hacks the longer stuff back. We aim for\nsymmetry and settle for what we get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: You look fine. Short\nunkempt hair is all the rage now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: That\u2019s me. Always on the\ncutting edge of fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Yet another thing we have\nin common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nwalk another block, marveling at how warm the day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: So\u2026 we\u2019re friends now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Yeah. How do you like it so\nfar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Very much.  How do you like it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I love it. You\u2019re my very\nfirst male friend who isn\u2019t gay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Do you have many gay male\nfriends?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Honey, I\u2019m in show biz.\nI\u2019ve managed a theatre company for twenty years, and before that I was a script\nsupervisor on fourteen movies, otherwise known as the continuity person. And\nbefore that I was an aspiring actor. So, yes, I have many gay male friends. Do\nyou have any gay male friends?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I used to. My best friend was\ngay, but he died and I don\u2019t currently have any gay friends. Well, that\u2019s not\ntrue. I correspond with a lesbian and a sometimes lesbian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I\u2019m sorry you lost your\nfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Harry was a marvel. You would\nhave loved him. Pianist. Composer. Full of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nwalk in silence for a time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: So you were an actor and a\ncontinuity person. You didn\u2019t tell me that when we were trying to concoct a\nrelationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: (frowns) I know. Came out\neasy as pie now that we\u2019re friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: And I didn\u2019t tell you that I<\/em> was an aspiring actor. I must have\nbeen embarrassed about that before we were friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Did you go to LA and try to\nmake it in the movies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: No. New York. Did the whole\nbartender by night, acting workshops and auditions by day. For three exhausting\nhumiliating years. Then I came back to California and morphed into a book\neditor while trying to get parts in plays and indie films. (laughs) I was a\ncolossal failure, but I loved trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: You didn\u2019t fail, Mark. You\njust didn\u2019t realize that trying was your success. That\u2019s what I realize now when\nI look back on all the things I\u2019ve done in my life. I never failed. I just didn\u2019t\nunderstand that trying was my practice. As the Buddhist teachers say, we\npractice to practice, not to get somewhere, not to win some prize. When you\npractice the guitar you\u2019re not failing. You\u2019re practicing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: And lately I\u2019ve been failing to practice. But I know what you mean and I thank you for reminding me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I do occasionally have a\nsmall part in one of our plays. But acting in plays has never been my bliss. I\nwanted to be in movies. I\u2019ve never been keen on playing the same part over and\nover again, but I love becoming someone else in relation to other people.\nThat\u2019s my favorite part about acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: So is that where you and\nMarlene met? In Hollywood?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Yes, she was the art\ndirector on two films I worked on, and we became instant friends. And then a year\nafter I moved here to take the job managing the theatre company, she moved up\nhere, too, and I eventually enticed her to design some sets for us, and she turned\nout to be a fabulous actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Was she a success in\nHollywood, speaking of success?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: She art directed some very\nbig movies and made lots of money, and if you ask her about her movie career\nshe\u2019ll say they paid her a fortune to make crap look good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: And how did you meet Angela?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: She is the accountant for\nour company. We met twenty years ago and fell in love as best friends will.\nIsn\u2019t she just the most brilliant deadpan comedian? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: She\u2019s great. Every spoke of\nyour troika is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: And so are you, my friend.\nSo are you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Marlene\u2019s terrace, frogs and\nturtles sunning themselves on lily pads in her big pond, Marlene serves a lunch\nof chicken enchiladas, spicy tomato rice, refried beans, salad, and guacamole.\nThe women have beer, Mark water with a slice of lemon. Angela and Bernice and\nMarlene share a big table, Marlene and Angela wearing floppy sunhats and sun\ndresses, while Mark sits at a smaller table ten feet from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: You don\u2019t drink any alcohol,\nMark?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Mark: I have the occasional sip of wine and\nthe occasional sip of beer. I love the taste, but I\u2019m allergic to alcohol and\nmore than a little makes me ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: Do you smoke pot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: No. I used to, but not\nanymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: Why did you stop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Well\u2026 I was addicted and it\nwas ruining my life. So I quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Good choice, Mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: The three of us sometimes\nsmoke pot together. We like getting high and watching a movie or dancing or\u2026\nwhatever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Sounds wonderful. I loved\ngetting stoned before I became addicted. But then it ceased to be about love\nand was all about needing to be high so I could feel okay about being here. You\nknow what I mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: Oh I do. Believe me, I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I believe you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Fortunately, we\u2019re all\ncheap dates, so a puff or two usually does the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Speaking of getting high, I\u2019m\ngetting high on this guacamole. You must give me your recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I\u2019ll write it down before I\ngo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Oh you can just email it to\nme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I\u2019ll send you her email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Great. So\u2026 what have you all\nbeen up to since we breakfasted at my place an eternity ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: I\u2019ve been doing other\npeople\u2019s taxes. Crunch time. Eight hours a day. Any more than that and the\nnumbers begin to blur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I know what you mean. I can\nonly edit for a few hours at a time and then my brain stops working and I have\nto stop looking at words and get up and move around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: How many hours a day do you\nwork?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Five or six, and to make my\nforty hours I work every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: You don\u2019t take weekends\noff?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: (attempts French accent) What\nis this thing you call weekend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I can\u2019t remember. The days\nall blur together now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: I still keep my weekends\nseparate from the weekdays, though I haven\u2019t had a job since the pandemic\nbegan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: So what do you do with your\ntime?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: I exercise for two hours in\nthe morning before breakfast, yoga and Pilates online, and then after breakfast\nI draw for an hour or so. Then I take my neighbor\u2019s dog for a walk, then I\nwrite emails, then I have lunch with tea and read, and then I visit friends\nin-person or on the computer. Then I might go shopping or do gardening work,\nand then it\u2019s supper, and after supper I might watch a movie or take a long\nbath. Often I do something with Bernice or Angela or both of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: You\u2019re so<\/em> disciplined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Well, I have to be. I\u2019m\nvery prone to melancholy, so without the structure I will become morose and it\nisn\u2019t good for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Sounds like a good life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: It is. I\u2019m very lucky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Did you study art in college?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Yes. I studied drawing and\npainting and sculpture in France, and then specifically set design and art\ndirection for films in Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: And then you conquered\nHollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: (laughs) Au contraire.\nHollywood demolished me. So much work to make crap look good, and one day I woke\nup and realized I was growing old and all I\u2019d done with my life was help\npromote stereotypes of women as whores and men as vengeful heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Do you ever wish you\u2019d stayed\nin France? Made more complex dramas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Sometimes. Not often. France\nwas quite stifling for me in many ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: Not to change the subject,\nbut these enchiladas are to die for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: They are so<\/em> good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Fantastic. And I\u2019m a serious\nenchilada aficionado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: I\u2019m glad you like them.\n(looks at Mark) I\u2019m so sorry you can\u2019t be at our table. But in a few months we\nwill all be vaccinated and then we can sit together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: In the meantime, I appreciate\nyour wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\npleasant silence falls as they enjoy the delicious lunch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: (to Mark) Bernice says you\nedit murder mysteries. Anything you\u2019d recommend? I gobble them like candy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I\u2019m not the one to ask about\nthat. Having edited hundreds of them, I now loathe the genre, though I do understand\ntheir appeal. In fact, a big part of my job is insuring that the books deliver\nthat particular high the reader is reading for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: If you hate the genre, why\nnot edit some other kind of books?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Not to avoid your question,\nbut perhaps the best way to answer you would be to ask why didn\u2019t you art\ndirect movies that weren\u2019t crap?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: They make very few movies\nin America that are not crap, and most of the ones that are not crap either don\u2019t\npay their art directors very well or those jobs go to the few men at the top of\nthe art director pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Well\u2026 they publish very few\nbooks in America that are not crap. And the relatively small publisher I work\nfor can\u2019t afford to publish books that aren\u2019t moneymakers, which precludes most\nbooks that are not crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: I think that\u2019s so sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark:  Depends on what you like to read. I mean\u2026 only\na very small percentage of our population buys books of any kind, let alone\nliterary works, and that same population is two or three generations removed\nfrom the golden age of American literature that ended, for all intents and\npurposes, in the 1960s. And they probably wouldn\u2019t like<\/em> fiction of that quality if it were published today because the\ncollective taste has changed, forever altered by television and the subsequent\nversions of television most people now access on their phones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: Which is why I\u2019m reading\nDickens again. He holds up well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: And I read murder mysteries.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: And twenty years from now\nthey\u2019ll say the golden age was the early 2000s, and on we\u2019ll go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Thus it has always been. I was\nrecently reading Twain\u2019s autobiography and he reeled off the names of a dozen\nor so of his most famous contemporaries circa 1900 and I\u2019d never heard of any\nof them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: So maybe it\u2019s not so sad.\nThings just change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: I wish I could look at it\nthat way, but it feels like a death to me. The contemporary plays we do now,\nthey feel so much like television shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: They are. Because that\u2019s all\nthe younger writers know about. They\u2019re not going to imitate Eugene O\u2019Neil or\nArthur Miller or Samuel Beckett. They\u2019re going to write in ways that feel\nfamiliar to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: (to Mark) Bernice tells us\nyou write plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I\u2019ve written a few. And I\u2019ve\ngotten a handful of stellar rejection letters, but I fear I may already be a\ndead writer, though my body has yet to die. I stopped watching television when\nI was nineteen and traveled down a long road of reading great dead writers, so\nI don\u2019t really speak the language of now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Which brings up an\ninteresting question. Why write something or create something for which there\nis no audience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: It\u2019s not only an interesting<\/em> question, it is the fundamental\nquestion for artists who make original art. And my<\/em> answer is that some part of me must still believe there is<\/em> an audience for what I do if only by\nsome miracle it gets to live on a larger stage than my desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: And my<\/em> answer is we create what we create regardless of what anyone\nelse thinks. Otherwise it\u2019s not art. It\u2019s commercial art, maybe, but not art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: And my<\/em> answer is a combination of both your answers. I assume the poem has\ncome to me for a reason I\u2019ll discover after I get the thing written down. Then I\ncan decide if it\u2019s something I want to share or just needed to get out. Like a\nbowel movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: (laughs) I have drawn many\npictures of this sort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: And I don\u2019t write or draw or\ncreate anything. I read murder mysteries and watch television, lots of\ntelevision, especially British stuff. And you\u2019re right, Mark. I\u2019ve tried to\nread Faulkner and Nabokov and Dickens and Philip Roth and John Updike and I find\nit all impenetrable and nothing I care about. I couldn\u2019t even read Harry Potter<\/em>. But I love murder\nmysteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: What do you love about them,\ndarling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: I love the suspense and the\ndanger and the needing to know who did it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: You identify with the\ndetective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela: I do. I feel like I\u2019m there,\nand I\u2019m in danger, and I\u2019ve got to find out who the killer is before they kill me<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: That\u2019s my job, Angela. Making the\nwriting is good enough so the reader will identify with the detective and feel the\ndetective is not merely solving a crime, but defying death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene: I\u2019ve always wondered what\nthe appeal was. And now I know. But it\u2019s nothing I want to read. I feel like\nI\u2019m defying death every day. Isn\u2019t that what life is? Defying death?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: And eating good food while we\u2019re\nat it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masked\nagain and trying to stay six feet apart, Mark and Bernice take their time\nwalking home from Marlene\u2019s. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Mark?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Yes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I watch television. And if\nwe were in a relationship I would still watch television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: And I would watch it with you\nsometimes, just to be with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I also drink beer and wine\nand sometimes scotch on the rocks and every now and then I smoke pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Would you allow me the occasional\nsip of your booze?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I would. But I also like lots of plays by writers who are not dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: You could educate me, and if I\ndidn\u2019t like a play you liked, we could have revealing discussions about why you\nlike the play and I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: You say all the right\nthings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: So do you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Do you think you\u2019re still\nhoping to be in a relationship with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Probably. But I\u2019m also fine\nwith being your friend and never being in a relationship with you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: How about taking ballroom\ndance lessons? Would you do that for me if we were in a relationship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I would do that for you as\nyour friend. And that goes for watching television with you and having sips of\nyour booze and discussing contemporary plays. We don\u2019t have to wait. We can do\nit all now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: But no sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: No, I\u2019d even have sex with you\nas your friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I don\u2019t think that would\nwork. Not yet anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I wonder why you brought up\nbeing in a relationship when we were having so much fun being friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Maybe because I can talk\nabout it now without being afraid I\u2019ll say the wrong thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Well that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: So now, once again, if not\nfor the pandemic we would probably kiss, wouldn\u2019t we? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: That\u2019s nonsense. If we want to\nkiss each other, we will. We\u2019re both healthy and strong and neither of us has\nthe virus. And we both know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: So why don\u2019t you try to\nkiss me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Because I love being your\nfriend and I want to see where it takes us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nstop walking and look at each other.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I want to see where it\ntakes us, too. I think the reason I brought up being in a relationship is that\nthe more time I spend with you, the more I like you, and maybe I\u2019m afraid\nyou\u2019ll fall in love with someone else and I\u2019ll miss my chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: I\u2019m flattered. But I don\u2019t\nthink the fear of missing your chance is a good reason to start a relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: No, of course not, but\u2026 I\nsaw the way you were looking at Marlene and\u2026 she really likes you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: The mind boggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nresume walking.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: I\u2019m being an idiot, aren\u2019t\nI?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Yeah, but you\u2019re very cute\nwhen you\u2019re being an idiot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: You\u2019re just saying that to\nmake me feel better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: No, it\u2019s true. You get very\nopen and vulnerable when you talk about your fears, and you become more\nbeautiful than ever, which is an extreme kind of cuteness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: (laughs) I like being your\nfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Ditto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernice: Imagine me holding your\nhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark: Imagine me really liking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin\n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light Song<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the sequel to Relationship Interview #9. Mark is sixty-four and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite the strictures of the pandemic, he had five dates with Bernice, who is fifty-seven, before the focus of their connection shifted from possibly having a relationship to becoming friends. In the process of making this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6480,6483,6476,6479,6474,6481,6478,5660,6432,5142,6477,6475,9,33,6482],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4320,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317\/revisions\/4320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}