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"Have you noticed," she said, "that when you learn something new, you suddenly start seeing it everywhere? This happens to me all the time."
Indeed!
This is sometimes expressed as the "New Car Rule" which goes:
Once you've purchased a particular model of new car, suddenly you see them everywhere!
This is the beginning of a fascinating insight into how our brains work, how obsessed they are with patterns, and how they'll go on making patterns even when none really exist.
As such, it's always worth keeping the corollary of the New Car Rule in mind:
Am I seeing this new phenomenon everywhere because it is everywhere, or only because it's just been pointed out to me?
I frankly wasn't wowed by Perdido Street Station, and didn't read any of Mieville's subsequent works.
The book started off very well indeed, with some incredibly creative ideas, but as it got past the half-way point it started to bog down, with Mieville shoving random wierdness into the story apparently just to show off how creative he could be. The saving of the day at the end by a brand new character summoned out of nowhere just underscored to what extent the story had been tacked on to the world design.
