beccastareyes

This young man has played violin all his life. One day, he comes across a revered master in a park. He asks the master if he can play for him, so he can find out whether or not he's destined to play for a living. The master agrees, and after listening only a moment, he says, "You lack the fire."

Several years later, they meet again. The young man tells the master how his life has turned out differently, how he's become an accountant, and that, while he's missed playing the violin, he decided it was for the best. But he wants to know, what did the Master hear in his work that told him he lacks the fire?

"Oh, that. I didn't listen to you play. I tell everyone that."

"What? But... but I could have been a legend! My whole life could have been different and--"

"My dear boy," the master replies, "If you had the fire, you would have ignored me, and gone on playing."

If you must know, it was in response to some wanker ranting about how everyone who hated her fics must be homophobic and reacting to the number of gay men in her fics. Thus, they were oppressing her and the vast hoardes of fighters for Freedom and Justice and Badly-Done Fill-in-the-Blank Cliched Romance Fics should rally behind her. Now, while I have seen slash ficwriters flamed because they chose to write slash, I have also seen far too many bad slash writers (well, bad ficwriters in general) get reviews that say 'Are these two men really Characters A and B, because you seem to have mistaken them for Stereotypical Fandom Gay Couple?' and/or 'Please get a beta reader or stop posting unproofread work. Preferably both.' and start crying OMG!Homophobia!