Ned can't help but laugh when Ginsberg says he wouldn't fare well in a myth, because he's That Guy who would sass the gods. Ned isn't sure who he'd be, in a mythical setting, but he thinks he might do better in some ways. Not because people typically did all that well in myths (and he certainly doesn't fit the type of the kind of guy who did), but because at least freaks were explicable in myths. If one day you realized you could just touch dead things and bring them back to life, chances were you were actually a demigod and your mother never told you. How easily ancient civilizations explained the unexplainable.

Not that he's going to explain any of that to Ginsberg. Instead he just says, "Yeah, I did read a lot."

When Ginsberg starts asking him about symbolism Ned feels put on the spot. He looks at the painting in question again, wonders if he's missed something. "It's... just a portrait, right?" It must be a trick question. Ginsberg is testing him, or teasing him. "It doesn't always have to have a hidden meaning behind it. Maybe... sometimes people just wanted their kids and grandkids to know what the looked like when they were young. Like a photograph, only they hadn't invented it yet."