I took Professor Rickles course 10 years ago and it changed my life. At the time, many people in class didn't quite get what he was doing, but were intrigued at various degrees. From reading the recent reviews, it seems as though students at USCB have become more close-minded, less curious, judgmental and less prepared for scholarly work.
class was titled "German Science Fiction" so i took it but that was the last thing talked about during the quarter. impossible to stay focused on lecture. incredibly monotonous, low volume, and stationary professor.teaches at graduate level, u won't meet ur TA (grader). demanding.unrelated material.felt very lost
Must pay attention In class, he talks very low so it is recommended that you sit in the front. I highly recommend his book Vampire Lectures because it helps! Midterm + Final Take home Essay.
Dry speaker, but if you can manage to pay attention to the pauses, the hmms, the hahs, then lecture can be interesting. Rikels gets much more into it when members of the class participate. If he would just prepare his lectures more rather than winging every lecture it would be a lot more interesting. Easy class.
Most boring class ever. 2 in-class essays, no final. None of the material really made sense to me. Try to pay attention to his lecture and the readings as they are what the essays are based on.
His voice is so monotonous its hard to stay awake or understand anything that he says. Two midterm essays and a final take home essay.
Larry is amazing! He's a god.
I went to the first day of this class with every intention of learning about the really cool books from the book list and not a word of his lecture made any sense! It was incredibly frustrating. He has a very soothing monotone voice (not the best for people trying to stay awake) and he talked about things no one had any idea about.
Lectures make no sense. He doesn't explain any of the reading, which is pretty dense, and if you don't have a background in Freud you're screwed. He seems pretty self important. His essay prompts are really difficult to navigate, vague and overly theatrical. His TA was more terrifying than any film we watched and he's hard to get a hold of.
Rickels classes changed my life :)
Rickels is crazy. Very cute dog. Very ambiguous lectures. Likes to connect everything he loves about Freud (and believe me, he loves Freud A LOT) to crazy theories about Satan. If you take good notes in class, you'll do well on the midterm. Final paper? Good luck. Paper topic was absolutely insane. I'm glad I'm done with it.
Easy class. Every lecture he shows 1-3 film clips, and these clips (and his analysis of them) are just as important as the readings in the reader. Just a midterm paper (in class) and take home final paper. Midterm was easy, final was a bit more confusing but doable. Rickels is bizarre, in a interesting way. I wanted to go to class.
People complaining about Rickels need to lighten up. This class is definitely bizarre, but what did you expect when you signed up for a class on Satan? This is a very easy class. you just need to do the midterm and final. It helps to read some of the material to know what Rickels is actually talking about. it does make some sense if you read Freud.
his lectures are impossible to follow
one of my favorite professors here. his lecturing is a little hard to get used to at first but once you do get them, they are so clever and carefully thought out. uses really extreme/obscure theories which makes the class interesting. also has an adorable schnauzer in his arms while he lectures
Ridiculous class, ridiculous teacher. Related some of the best pieces of literature to mediocre (at best) slasher/horror films with no relevance at all. Liked the literature, hated the teaching style, hated the teacher.
awful professor...spoke in coded language...movies are ok but some are extremely wierd...i liked all my previous horror film classes but this was a bit of a let down.
Professor Rickels was the best professor I've ever had. He's underrated and superhuman.
Really smart guy if you listen to what he is saying. Relates all the books to horror movies which is pretty crazy, but entertaining. The plays are great and I love his dog. Grade basically depends on the TA you get.
Okay guys! If you are prepared to laugh for an entire hour and fifteen minutes at this man's absurd views on the obscene, bloody, and horrific while at the same time watching him pet the dog he holds in his lap, then please take this class. He is such a cute little bald man!!! The way he relates the morbid to literature is amazing.<3333333333333333
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Not as easy as everyone thinks. Incredibly interesting material though, you will never watch horror films the same way again. Great change of pace for a science major! Make sure you talk to Martin, the most helpful TA I have ever had in any subject. Simply put, Rickels is a cool dude and I would take a class from him again anytime!
I don't see how this teacher could get poor ratings. He knows his sh*t, has a weird little dog that eats out of a goblet, is a very fair grader, and his lectures are effing awesome....though yes, I'm sure they go over some people's heads. It's a great class. If for nothing else, take it for an easy A.
I had a change of heart for him one day when i realized he was a normal human being, but honestly his teaching his scattered, never know what he's talking about, never even have to go to class to understand anything, get help from Martin, his TA...he made the class interesting and not a regret