The Deep Dive Diary

An English teacher and head of department revisits a 1994 school exercise book of their own creative writing, framing the episode as a self-indulgent but serious “deep dive” into two short stories written less than a month apart. They read “An Assault” (May 11, 1994), then interpret it through Marxist literary criticism (Althusser, ideological state apparatus), focusing on school as a factory of compliance, a father’s disruption, and a teacher’s insistence on institutional stability. They then read “Mr. Goodfriend” (June 5, 1994) and analyze it via Freud’s repression, the uncanny, and late-20th-century British masculinity, centering on grief, suburbia, and emotional suppression. Concluding, they argue both stories share themes of isolation, passive witnessing of trauma, and maintaining orderly facades, and note hopes for more regular podcast releases.