The Bear and Barnacle

"Inspirations are a fundamental particle of the universe. It is harder to describe them than it is to describe their effect, which is to create ideas - or more accurately, sudden insights - in the human brain. Inspirations can pass through absolutely anything and the human or near-human brain contains a receptor which can be fired up by the passage of one. Not for nothing do we say 'I was struck by an idea.' Some people also originate inspirations in other people. Everyone knows of someone who is not only brilliant in themselves but also generates ideas in others around them. Given the universes love of opposites, that means that there are also people who are an 'ideas sink'. People who, humdrum in themselves, cause humdrumity in others."* Rincewinds idea's receptor is extremely small. An inspiration trying to hit it is like an archer trying to shoot a cherry of a persons head at seventy-five meters, in the dark, wearing a blindfold in a typhoon. Nevertheless, given the sheer number of inspirations sleeting through the universe, one is bound to strike dead on sooner or later. This is one of those rare occasions.

( Highkoos by Rincewind )