Scream Queens, Artists, Authors, Mad Scientists, and Other Odd Persons Collude: A Panel & Discussion

“The only way to deal with this life is to find it absurd and love it anyway.”
— Donald Barthelme


Questions and Concepts

  1. Origins of the Peculiar
    • What drives someone to embrace the strange, the macabre, or the unorthodox in their creative or scientific pursuits?
    • How do childhood fears or fascinations shape the work of scream queens, artists, writers, and mad scientists?
  2. The Scream as Art
    • Is there a universal thread connecting the scream in horror, the chaos of mad science, and the raw expression of art or writing?
    • How do you harness terror or madness as a tool for creation rather than destruction?
  3. Blurring Boundaries
    • Where does the line between artist, writer, scientist, and “peculiar person” dissolve—and does it matter?
    • Can madness in one field (e.g., science) inspire genius in another (e.g., storytelling or performance)?
  4. The Monstrous Muse
    • What role do monsters—literal or metaphorical—play in fueling your work?
    • How do you decide whether to tame the monster or let it run wild in your creations?
  5. Subculture Synergy
    • How do subcultures like horror, steampunk, goth, or surrealism collide to birth new ideas among scream queens, artists, and mad scientists?
    • What’s the strangest collaboration you’ve witnessed or dreamed of between these worlds?
  6. The Ethics of the Extreme
    • Is there a moral limit to how far you’ll push your art, experiments, or stories—or is the peculiar defined by its rejection of limits?
    • How do you respond to those who call your work “too much” or “too strange”?
  7. Time, Space, and Weirdness
    • How does the liminal nature of Wonderplace Alpha amplify or challenge your creative process?
    • If you could pull inspiration from any era or dimension, where would you go and why?
  8. The Audience’s Role
    • Do you create to provoke, entertain, enlighten, or terrify—and how do you handle when the audience reacts in unexpected ways?
    • What’s the wildest reaction you’ve ever gotten to your work, and did it change you?
  9. Tools of the Trade
    • What’s the one tool, concept, or ritual you can’t create without—be it a pen, a scream, a formula, or something odder?
    • How do you adapt when your tools fail or the experiment goes awry?
  10. Legacy of the Peculiar
    • What mark do you hope to leave on the cosmos as a scream queen, artist, writer, or mad scientist?
    • If your work outlives you in Wonderplace Alpha, what should future travelers uncover about you?

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