Max Porter

Have I had that thought myself?

So it's asking the reader to do a lot.

But, you know, they've spent 20 bucks on a book.

What they put in is what they get out.

Yeah, he's like the green man.

I know you are familiar with the green man in Australia, and I don't know whether that's because you took it from us or whether it... The thing about myth and folklore is it's highly specific to the place, but also there are general patterns across the world, and there's great fluidity between folklore traditions.

So they borrow from one another, and then they become very...

topographically specific or they sort of bleed into each other.

But what he is is a green man armed with knowledge of what he is.

He's a sort of postmodern figure in as much as he knows he has been, had a symbolic function.

He knows he's used to get kids to brush their teeth before they go to bed or they'll get stolen in the night.

So he's sort of sand man, but he's also a sort of symbol of the forest, of rewilding, of re-enchantment.

He also knows, and this is important because he's in a book,

by me he knows he's kitsch you know he knows he's kind of pop cultural and that therefore he's a bit he's a bit vulgar as well and he kind of likes that and he kind of he can connect that to how he was used by the church and how he was used by the romans and how he's used in art and how he's used as as a tattoo or on like he says i've been the cricket club logo i've been a mascot you know i have been cash he's been a part of capitalism's um workings as well as ecological workings um and and then what does he love

after having seen the whole of British history, he loves this child because this child represents to him the truest relationship to the world.

I actually don't.

I quit.

Oh, did you?

Yeah.

Ah, success.