On Mon, 29 Sep 2003, Cecil Pinto wrote: > Goan English Fiction Writers > By Cecil Pinto
> Another relevant aspect which comes to the fore is that there seems to be > an absolute dearth of English Fiction Writers in Goa whereas the vernacular > abounds with works of fiction - short stories, novels, plays etc. Perhaps > the current generation of Goan writers will throw up some fresh talent to > fill up this lacuna in fiction writing. I don't think this statement is accurate. Maybe Cecil could say that most English-language fiction writers are not adequately showcased on the Net. This only underlines the need to (i) convince more professionals and/or creative people to take to cyberspace and (ii) digitise available works, where copyrights and other restrictions don't get in the way, or the writer is willing. (To argue there is "an absolute dearth" is another thing. For instance, when St Xavier's recently held a program on Goan Writing in English, this one-time avid collector of Goa books managed to fish out some 63 titles, just to tell young students that the field is not as barren as they think! Yes, most of these books are hard-to-find and out-of-print... but they do exist. Go to the Central Library's oddly-named 'Rare Books Section' and check out the Goa collection there. Other collectors like Eddie Fernandes in the UK have a far, far richer collection than me. That we are possessive about our so-hard-to-replace Goa books is another story.... ) This apart, Cecil has an interesting update of Goan writing resources on the Net. Like in other fields too, there is a wide gap between the resources on the Net, and what has been put out but is *not* available on the Net. The challenge to all interested is to see how more resources can be made publicly available and accessible. Project Gutenberg has done an amazing job with sharable ebooks (http://gutenberg.net) at a global scale. FN -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
