When the Doctor advised Donna Noble of this in "Silence in the Library" in series four of the 2005 revival of the long-running show Doctor Who, it was very good advice, indeed. (Rarely does the Doctor dole out anything but the best of recommendations.) The Vashta Nerada, "piranhas of the air", are flesh-eating swarms, microscopic in size, and resemble shadows. They make shadows very scary places to be.
However, for someone who considers herself socially awkward, shadows are only dangerous insomuch as they tempt her to stay hidden, to avoid the light, and the nerve-twisting, misery-inducing experience of social interaction. What this results in are days on end of inaction, of sitting on the couch watching Doctor Who marathons, of failing to grow and to express herself.
I certainly love my time spent with the Doctor and his companions in the impossible TARDIS. I also love to write, and I love to talk, both expressive qualities. But most of my great conversations are those I've had with myself, and most of my great prose has been for my eyes only. It's boring, this attempt at becoming an island.
So, I'll heed the good Doctor's advice and stay out of the shadows (I really don't want the flesh gnawed off my bones, you know). A blog may be no big step towards becoming more out-going and a go-getter, because with a laptop I'm still on that couch, but it's a step.
Finally, "Silence in the Library" and the second part of the episode, "The Forest of the Dead", are two of my favorite installments of Doctor Who. They feature a planet-sized library (presumably a public library), centuries in the future, that still has books. As a recent library school grad who has heard the assertion by some library users that libraries are nothing more than Internet cafes, and that books are obsolete because of the World Wide Web, it is lovely to see that, at least in episode writer Steven Moffat's mind, books are still integral parts of the libraries of the future.
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