"Let Them Eat Mac 'n' Cheese: My Life as an Artist, History Buff, and Cheese Enthusiast" with Zoë Robison

Let Them Eat Mac 'n' Cheese: My Life as an Artist, History Buff, and Cheese Enthusiast

Zoë’s bookshelf contains graceful idealism and absolute terror.

Also, a fantastic collection of adorable trinkets.

Imagine fairytale princesses meeting in coffee shops to discuss the ramifications of the French Revolution. I’d like to think this shelf is in their favorite café. That it witnesses long-winded debates with glee. That maybe one princess illustrates the guillotine by using a blunt plastic knife to slice through her warm croissant. That another comments on the potential of mankind while she watches. That the third sketches all of them gathered around the table.

I inhale magic and exhale revolution here.

“If you wrote an autobiography, what would it be called?” I asked her.

“Let Them Eat Mac ‘n’ Cheese: My Life as an Artist, History Buff, and Cheese Enthusiast.”

Let’s eat.

Q: Where did you get your bookshelf from?

Zoë Robison: So my bookshelf comes from my great aunt’s house. She passed away in 2005, it was. And my dad’s mom passed away before I was born. She was kind of—that’s her sister—so she was kind of like my grandma on that side.

She was like the perfect grandmother. Sweetest little Southern lady. We would go up to her house all the time. She'd have, you know, the little bedroom set up for us...When she died, we pretty much got all the furniture and this used to be in her living room. I remember there was a little picture of like our family in this weird little picture frame of a sofa. I don't know why it was a sofa, but yeah, it used to like sit right in the middle of the bookshelf. I always think about that when I see it.
Q:  How would you feel if someone saw your bookshelf?
ZR: I mean, I'm really proud of my book collection and this is only a small portion of it. You know, I think I have a nice little mix of things up there. I hope people would recognize things and look for recommendations or whatever.

Honestly, one of my proudest moments was when my dad came into my room one day and started looking through my books and was like, "You got a good lil collection over here.”

And I was like, "I did it!"
Yeah, I would love for people to come and look. They'd probably be like this is obnoxious the amount of French history you have, but, you know. That's my thing.
(On how each shelf tells a different story)
If you split it, the bottom half could be like, "This is a child's. And the top half, you're like: French scholar?"
Q: Alrighty, so how would you describe your reading collection: overall and in one word?
ZR: It's a weird mix between extremely depressing and very creative and inspiring. My favorite parts of history are really rough. Really violent. The French Revolution, that's like some rough shit. There's a mix of that plus Jim Henson's biography and all these little creative inspiring things.
I don't know, that's so tough. I guess, hmm, maybe idealistic would be a good word for it.

Because the creative aspect of it is kind of an idealism in terms of this whole creative world and where I want to be and looking at the success and struggles that they've had and everything.

But, then the history aspect of it, I have a tendency to romanticize history. Especially, the areas I'm really interested in, you've got these big courts and the flowing dresses and big parties. It's very idealized and romantic and then reality sets in, which is kind of what I love so much about those periods.

Q: What is your favorite book on the shelf? It can be your favorite book of the moment or overall.

ZR: I'm going to give you two answers.

My two favorite books of all time are The Hobbit and The Tale of Two Cities. The Hobbit I've read probably once a year since I was ten. It was...I can't even really say what it is about that I loved so much, maybe Hobbit culture is very dear to my heart. I'm bout it. I love it.

I don't know. Something about it makes me feel like childhood and magic and all this kind of stuff. That's definitely one.

Then Tale of Two Cities. Read it in high school for an English class and I completely hated it at first. Then, as the story progressed, that was the first time that I had really read about the French Revolution before. I knew the main names and that kind of stuff, but didn't really know the story...It's interesting to see that side of human nature.

That's what I love so much about history: it happened. It was real. Any fiction story you read, it's great, but…

With history, it's like this is an amazing, completely captivating story and it actually happened. I think that's why I'm so drawn to those darker periods in history. It's just amazing to think that it really happened and to see all the good that came out of it.

Q: Have you received a book as a gift?

ZR: Many times. [laughing] My dad is a department head of history and political science at Southeastern. He has an enormous book collection and often gets book samples in to use for classes. He'll have leftovers from classes and then [laughing] he gives them to me.

A bunch of the books up there are books that have come from his library and accidentally found their way into my bookshelf and not back to him. He'll just bring me stacks and stacks of books all the time.

It’s amazing. I have no room for them, but I love it.

Q: Have you read every book on your shelf?

ZR: No, I have not and I was actually looking through it earlier and trying to see. There are about ten or fifteen on this shelf that I haven't read yet. If you want to talk about my bookshelves at home, hell no. I have not even skimmed the surface. I've read most of them, but not all of them.

Q: If your bookshelf could talk, what it would say to you?

ZR: Oh, man. Hmm. That's a really tough question. What would your bookshelf say to you? Have you thought about it?

Courtney: Yes! My bookshelf would say: "You're too hard on yourself. You don't need these many self-help books. [laughing] You should try to concentrate on fiction more, but I really dig the stuff that you've filled me with right now." Yeah, I feel like my bookshelf would be kind of the best friend that I need to jump in every now and then. And be like, "No, you got it going on. Look, you've read all this shit. You're doing quite alright." [laughing]

ZR: I think mine would say, “There's always room for more”

I'm always buying books and I think that that's a good thing. I think it's a good thing for people to go out and keep buying them even if they don't get to them yet cuz there's always more time. You're going to have the opportunity to get there. There's always more stuff to learn. There's always more stuff to explore. Yeah, it would be something kind of like that.

Fin.