From Killing Don Quixote...

In view of the current topic for this blog, it was apposite and remarkably prescient of BBC4 to screen 'Lost in La Mancha' last night. This is a documentary about the doomed attempt by Terry Gilliam to fulfil a long-held dream by making a film called 'Who Killed Don Quixote'. The documentary apparently chronicles a bizarre series of misfortunes, and received good reviews when it was released (in 2002, according to IMDB, though I could have sworn it was more recent than that).

I've wanted to see it ever since then, but it was up against the first part of 'The Cult of the Suicide Bomber' on Channel 4. This, too, dealt with loss, but of a different kind: lost lives, and I mean lost in so many ways. This first part dealt with the suicide bomber as a weapon of war. Next week, in the concluding part, it will look at these bombers as a weapon of terror.

In this blog I try to see the optimistic side of loss, but there is no recovery or second chance here, and it's hard not to despair about the future. I keep reminding myself that the media have so much space to fill that they have to go on about something, but I wish they'd latch on to something else. I won't be watching next week. Instead, I'll be down on that allotment, preparing for the end of civilisation (well, interruptions to the delivery of supplies to Sainsbury's - ok then, worse interruptions than normal).