You would have to have a heart of stone and a soul of Formica to listen to ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ without wondering to yourself why there are sixteen vestal virgins. What? What does the number mean? Why sixteen? What’s the reason? There is, of course, no reason and the truth is plain to see: it feels so mysterious. If she had been one of several vestal virgins, the song would be Much Less Memorable.
Like Borges
