Poet Orion Carloto | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire - video Dailymotion

Marie Claire

"Film for Her" author Orion Carloto  takes us on a tour of her beautiful bookshelves and shares some of her favorite reads, including cherished poetry collections and a novel so good she read the entire thing in one day.

Transcript

00:00Do people assume maybe that I'm a little crazy?

00:04Maybe, who knows?

00:05It is interesting, and that's all I'll say.

00:07Hello, everyone.

00:08My name is Orion Parlato,

00:10and today I'm going to be giving Marie Claire

00:12a look into my now extensive home library.

00:16This is Shelf Portrait, and this is my cat, Lolita,

00:21who loves attention.

00:26Now my bookshelf is kind of split up

00:29in strange ways.

00:30It's my own kind of Dewey Decimal System, in a way.

00:34Right over here in this section,

00:35I have, obviously, I have some art books,

00:37but I have a little section of some children's books,

00:41you know, along with all fiction.

00:43And here we have my art books, as in magazines.

00:48I love Pinfolk.

00:50I love Vogue.

00:51And, you know, here are more the poetic and prose stories

00:56that really reminisce in my life, you know,

00:59not only as an adult, but as a young adult

01:02growing up and reading as well.

01:08So as a disclaimer, I must admit

01:09that I am one of those people

01:11that frequently gives away their books to their friends.

01:14That being said, a lot of my favorites

01:16are not on my shelf right now

01:18because they're in the hands of those who I love.

01:21One of my favorite books that is not on my shelf

01:23at the moment is one by Alan Watts

01:25called The Wisdom of Insecurity.

01:28That is one book that I frequently find myself

01:30coming back to to read.

01:32It is just kind of a gentle reminder in life

01:35of, you know, all of your insecurities

01:37and the things that you kind of deep down already know,

01:40but kind of gives you some sort of reassurance,

01:42like a hug you're reading from an old friend

01:44or a mentor of sorts to kind of get you through life.

01:51If you didn't already know,

01:52I'm also a writer and poet myself,

01:54and actually one of my favorite books right now,

01:57No Shame is my book film for her,

02:00which is, you know, a collection of my life

02:02over the past three years,

02:04instances and moments that were put together

02:07through poetry, prose, short story, and film photography.

02:12And it really is about the mundane in life

02:15and all the in-betweens,

02:16because I think a lot of us tend to focus

02:19on our highs and our lows

02:20that we seldom reminisce on the moments

02:25that we didn't think to be as special in our lives.

02:29But this is a book that is a collection of that.

02:37One of my other favorite books

02:38that I actually started to read during quarantine

02:40is one called My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

02:43And that, I must admit,

02:46was probably one of my most interesting reads

02:49during quarantine,

02:50simply because it kind of coincide

02:53with being in quarantine.

02:54It is about a woman who is, you know,

02:57dealing with her own set of mental health issues

03:00and problems and ties hand-in-hand

03:03with a not-so-good psychiatrist,

03:05and she takes it upon herself to sleep for an entire year.

03:09It was one of those books where I could not get down.

03:11I was certainly, like, stuck to it for an entire day,

03:15and I finished it an entire day.

03:17It was very, very, very good.

03:19So my favorite childhood book

03:21I think comes as no surprise to anyone.

03:23It was pretty much anything by Shel Silverstein,

03:26but I have a copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends.

03:29This was, you know, obviously your first introduction

03:32to poetry as a kid, and it's very imaginative,

03:35and that's what I loved so much about Shel Silverstein

03:37is it was fun and funny

03:39and just all sorts of madness that was going on.

03:43I'll always have a soft spot in my heart

03:44for Shel Silverstein through and through.

03:50Another book I read during quarantine

03:52is this one by Ocean Vuong,

03:54On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous.

03:56One thing I love about this book

03:58is how I can relate to it in some way or another.

04:01Ocean Vuong wrote this about his own life.

04:04He is a writer, a child of immigrants,

04:06and he is also queer,

04:07and this is just kind of a letter to his mother

04:11who cannot read or really understand English,

04:15so it's almost unsure if she'll ever read it,

04:17but it's kind of like this personal memoir

04:20into his life growing up and these instances

04:24that kind of made him into the person he is today,

04:26and it was not only well-written

04:29and just extremely put together,

04:32but you can find parts of yourself in this story

04:35that I did not expect to find myself in.

04:39My favorite genre of book,

04:40which is surprising that I didn't mention any of them,

04:43is books by French poets.

04:46I think it is very important as a writer

04:49to obviously read up on the subject of what I do,

04:53but really try to understand,

04:55as to why poetry is so important to people,

04:57and I find that that beauty comes a lot from French poets,

05:02and I can only hope and wish one day

05:05that I could amount to that greatness,

05:07but until then, I will just read them to life

05:10on my bookshelf and hope for the best.

05:12Now, the next book is something that I read

05:14when I was in high school,

05:15and it kind of reintroduced me to my love for poetry,

05:20and it is Bluets by Maggie Nelson.

05:24Here she is.

05:25Maggie Nelson is one of my favorite writers,

05:26and she is just this profound poet,

05:29and Bluets was my first book that I've ever read by her.

05:32So there are 240 reasons in this book

05:34why the color blue is so significant in her life,

05:36and it is just poetic profoundness

05:39and something that I also like to reintroduce into my life.

05:44Every once in a while, a good friend of mine

05:46introduced her to me, and I haven't looked back since.

05:49Now, who am I to say that I'm a poet

05:51if I did not introduce, obviously,

05:55the love that I have for Patti Smith?

05:59As we all know, Patti Smith is someone

06:01who is just so in touch with her own life

06:05and her own experiences,

06:06and she has the most interesting life story

06:08growing up in New York City,

06:10and we're all familiar with Just Kids and The M Train,

06:12but one book that stood out to me the most was The Coral Sea.

06:16I read this, actually, when I was on a trip to Portugal

06:19with my father, and it is filled with, you know,

06:23excerpts, poetry, prose, you know, her life,

06:26and it kind of also goes hand-in-hand with Just Kids,

06:30talking about Robert Mapplethorpe,

06:31who was her then-boyfriend

06:34and also this iconic photographer who we all know and love.

06:38Thank you guys so much for watching my shelf portrait,

06:40and if you are interested,

06:41make sure to check out my new book, Filmed for Her.

06:44This is my second book of poetry that I've ever written.

06:47My first one was one titled Flux,

06:49and this is very, very special and important to me,

06:52and I hope maybe one day it'll find a spot

06:55in your library at home.

06:56And don't forget to subscribe to Marie Claire down below.

06:59Bye.

Poet Orion Carloto | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire

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