Th e Great Birthright
Below is an excerpt from Coast Weekend contributor Matt Love’s debut novel, “The Great Birthright.” The premise of the
book is that a Los Angeles developer, in league with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is trying to have Oregon’s fa-
mous 1967 Beach Bill constitutionally overturned as part of a sinister plan to privatize the state’s publicly owned beaches. And
only one writer, Love, and detective, Tom West, can stop him.
S
Several days went by before Love made
his way out to the Mad Dog Tavern outside of
Newport. It was a Saturday afternoon, and Love
drove the bay road in a slashing rain while Son-
ny the old husky snoozed beside him.
Love had pulled off a great week in the class-
room, and, naturally, it had something to do with
the beach. A new student had appeared in Cre-
ative Writing, and Love had asked him where
he had moved from. The boy, a senior named
Steve, said, “Nebraska.”
“Nebraska!” Love had roared, the class
roaring even louder. There had also been a few
mumbled insults about corn.
Love had calmed them down and learned
that Steve’s mother had taken a new job as a
nurse at Newport’s hospital. Love asked him
what he thought of the beaches. It was his stock
question to every transfer.
“I haven’t been yet. I’ve actually never seen
the ocean. We just got in a few days ago and
found our apartment,” said Steve.
“You’re joking,” said Love.
“No. I’ll probably go see it this weekend.”
“You’re going right now.”
“Now? During class?”
“Call it a ¿ eld trip.”
“What about a permission slip?”
“Oswald West gives you permission. The
ocean doesn’t care.”
Steve had had no response to that. He’d ap-
peared sort of frightened and seemed to sudden-
ly miss boring corn¿ elds and worksheets.
Love had announced to the class Steve’s
obvious sickness and immediate remedy. His
students nodded silently. They knew the drill.
They were a trained army. In 10 minutes they
would rally at Nye Beach and execute Opera-
tion Great Birthright, as they had so many times
before. Love also told them to bring wood, oil
and a hacky sack. He’d round up Sonny for the
indoctrination. Steve was going to see the ocean
for the ¿ rst time and experience his ¿ rst beach
bon¿ re ² at nine in the morning. Naturally, at
the bon¿ re, a complete stranger had showed up,
claimed alien abduction, and pulled out a har-
monica to entertain the students. That’s what
made free public beaches in Oregon so wonder-
ful.
Steve’s cure was the highlight of Love’s
teaching life during the week. He experienced
another one in his creative life as well. Actual-
ly, it was more of an epiphany. He never saw it
coming, which often happens when you visit the
beach in moments of joy or distress. Anything
can happen.
It started with two letters received on
Wednesday afternoon from national publishers
rejecting two different manuscripts about Ore-
gon subjects. It was always the same reason ²
too regional. Whenever he read these rejections,
Love swore he would never submit to a national
publisher again, and then a year or so later, he
would. He had admitted to himself that he want-
ed to reach a larger audience. He believed he
had unique Oregon stories and an original voice
that could do it. People in New York disagreed,
or they didn’t say anything at all.
After reading the second letter, Love loaded
up Sonny in the truck for a visit to his local
beach. It was the only way
he could recover ² to con-
verse with the sea. Art was
on his mind, as in: What does
an artist do when he submits
his art to the national artistic
establishment in the hope of
reaching a wider audience but
the establishment consistently
rejects his art? Does he quit? Does
he retrench and keep trying? Does
he take his art in a new direction
hoping to please the establishment?
Does he embrace the role of maver-
ick and put out his art his own way?
Love had been doing the maverick
shtick a long time. He was tired of it,
and damn near broke.
They took their familiar path to the beach.
Love looked out to the ocean and noticed the
tide was coming in fast, churning brown with
lots of foam for good measure. He jogged out to
the sand and pivoted north to the Yaquina Head
Lighthouse.
But the lighthouse never came into view.
Instead, Love beheld a series of some 50 sculp-
tures, structures and altars of varying size and
shape, all made from driftwood, burnt, barna-
cled or slimy smooth, all constructed and spaced
within a 40-yard stretch of sand at the base of the
cliff. As he approached, he noticed large words
etched in the sand:
Sea God
Beware!!!
Dance!
Love moved closer to inspect. Over the
years, he had walked into a lot of mysteries on
Oregon’s beaches (and enacted a few himself),
but this was like nothing he had ever seen.
He gave a gentle kick to one of the driftwood
pillars, expecting it to budge easily. It did not. It
was buried three feet deep, as were most of the
other sculptures. (verything was ¿ rmly anchored
in the sand and the amount of work required as-
tonished Love. He and Sonny had visited this
very beach 12 hours earlier, and there had been
nothing but scattered wood.
A wave swept in and soaked Love’s shoes.
He didn’t hear it washing ashore. In a half hour,
the incoming tide would batter the installation
and, in time, collapse it. Love re-
alized that he might be the only
person lucky enough to see this
mystery. Someone didn’t care
if they reached a wider audi-
ence for whatever it was he
was trying to do. Someone
didn’t care if another person
saw his art. He made it be-
cause he felt like it. Or had
to. Who had the time to do
this? Who had this great
notion to blow people’s
minds, or perhaps only
his own?
Love called out to
Sonny and started for
home. He gave a silent thanks to
the person or persons who made the art. He
was never going to quit writing and publishing,
and he wanted to pattern his future projects on the
metaphor provided by the Sea God. And what the
hell, maybe it wasn’t even a metaphor. Maybe it
could serve as a political strategy in a ¿ ght to save
the beaches ² blow minds with mystery and
ephemeral presence.
Love knew with all his heart that if Oregon’s
beaches became even partially privatized, the
mysteries he randomly encountered there that had
brought him so much mystery achievement in his
life, would soon vanish like the middle class in
America had vanished in his lifetime.
It was time to go to work.
Matt Love is the author/editor of
14 books about Oregon. His books are a
vailable through coastal bookstores or
nestuccaspitpress.com
the arts
VISUAL ARTS • LITERATURE • THEATER • MUSIC & MORE
Photo by Matt Love
Story by MATT LOVE
November 26, 2015 | coastweekend.com | 9