I wasn't sure where to put this because it is V related but not about her music or her specifically, but about us! I'm reading (casually)
Myths to Live by by Joseph Campbell. The part I read last night was about the "living mythological symbol" and just struck me so I had to share.
"It is an image that hits one where it counts... [it] talks directly to the feeling system and immediately elicits a response after which the brain may come along with it's interesting comments. There is some kind of throb of resonance within...like the answer of a musical string to another equally tuned. And so it is that when the vital symbols of any given social group evoke in all its members responses of this kind, a sort of magical accord unites them as one spiritual organism, functioning through members who, though separate in space, are yet one in being and belief."
It might be wrong of me to compare Campbell's explanation of a religious symbol to Vanessa Carlton, but in some ways she is for us that "mythological symbol" that we are share and are united because of it. She strikes that cord within us or else we wouldn't have this forum in the first place