Pandemonium is not chaos. Chaos might be understood, even accepted, but pandemonium will not let you rest, and leaves you confused and shellshocked. Pandemonium is chaos with a greater element of danger and fear. It is a total lack of order, decorum, and ethics. While chaos can describe the seemingly random actions of a set of animate or inanimate actors, pandemonium is distinctly human. When pandemonium breaks out, you are royally fucked.
However, some dictionaries still define “pandemonium” as a “noisy place”, or simply “disorder”. Dictionary meanings always lag years, and sometimes decades, behind common accepted meanings. This leads me to believe that pandemonium is undergoing a sort of etymological promotion…from a meaning of low intensity to one of high intensity. Or, if I’m simply placing too strong an emphasis on this word, then I think it SHOULD be up for promotion.
Another cool thing about pandemonium: this word was actually invented by John Milton for Paradise Lost. For Milton, Pandaemonium was “the name of the palace built in the middle of Hell”. You do not get more fucking crazy than the palace in the middle of Hell (except perhaps the hot tub in the day spa in the palace in the middle of Hell). And this author LOVES when writers make up or repurpose words successfully.
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