Am I The New Elle Woods?
In which I break down how Legally Blonde offers structural ideas for essays and compare myself to the blonde icon.
Hi, Y’all! Glad you’re here—
Before we begin, I just wanted to remind everyone of the plan starting in January.
In the new year, those with the free subscription will receive a newsletter at the end of each month with a brief overview of what I read that month, some general bookish thoughts, and the new releases I’m looking forward to. For anyone interested in following along with my National Book Award reading project, the paid subscription ($5 a month), will receive a newsletter every Friday at noon, with in-depth reviews of each of the books I’ve read that week, discussions of the commonalities of the books of each longlist, and what historical context I can offer. If you’re curious to see what that looks like, you can check out my previous posts about the 2021 longlist and the 2015 shortlist. No pressure either way—just know that I am grateful you’re reading, in whichever capacity suites you best.
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I like to think that the perfect structure for an essay lies within the final courtroom scene in Legally Blonde. Hear me out—Elle Woods is finally given her chance to prove herself when she’s faced with interrogating her client’s deceased husband’s twenty-seven year old daughter, Chutney Windham. Elle knows the truth of her client’s innocence, but she doesn’t know the answer to what actually happened when Hayworth was shot. She’s in search of some other part of the truth, the part she does not know, and so she begins asking whatever questions seem necessary to find the answer. Of course there’s some stumbling, moments that create self doubt among the audience…but eventually, preparation meets opportunity. She’s spent most of her life learning about such things as haircare, and when Chutney reveals that she supposedly took a shower the same day she got a perm, Elle knows this to be lie. She’s almost to the point of discovering the truth, but to explain how she got there, she now has to turn back to the audience and give an anecdote that seems entirely unrelated, only to use it as a ‘gotcha’ to make Chutney reveal that she accidentally shot her father and have the audience sit with this revelation until the next scene.
I think in many ways, essays are like this. It begins with a writer, full of questions, searching for a greater truth. They spend part of the essay asking questions that may not end up actually being necessary to finding the answer, but that were necessary to ask in order to find the right questions, which would lead to the answers they’re looking for. And most of the time, what they find shocks them as much as it does everyone else.
I don’t actually know if this is how essays work—I’m not an essay writer or an academic, or anyone who actually knows anything—but either way, this structure, this line of questioning in the hopes of a deeper revelation, will likely be what informs the structure of my newsletters over the next few months.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that much like Elle Woods, I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing with this endeavor. I know I’ll stumble and I know I won’t always say the right thing. But I’ll work hard to prove myself and move forward with the best of intentions. Maybe this caveat isn’t even needed. But if I’m being honest, I just really want to impress you. I want you to enjoy these posts and to feel the excitement and joy that I feel as I move forward with this project. I want you to know that I will do my best, and that hopefully, by the end of it, we’ll be able to walk out of the courtroom having rejected Warner and won our case.
I know I’ve already said thank you above, but I’d like to say it again to everyone who’s following this journey already. I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do something I’m so passionate about and have anyone care. So it means a lot. Stay tuned next week for the first official post of this project. It’s gonna be good!
I think you can be the next Elle Woods. I appreciate what you're doing on here. I'm also trying to be more intentional with my time this year. So taking some time out to read your posts will help me with that. Looking forward to what you stumble upon!