Billenium

Summary
The story is set in the distant future, by which time the world population has
stretched to such limits that space is severely short. Ward and Rossiter are
close friends who discover a hidden room. They are triumphant with their extra
space and plan to use it to maximum benefit. Later, Rossiter wants to invite
their girlfriends to share this space. The girls then bring in their families too.
Ward and his friend had despised the greedy landlords who provided tiny
cubicles to their tenants, but soon they both turn out to be like them..
The story is set in the distant future as the name Billennium suggests. Nearly
twenty million people are squashed into a city putting tremendous pressure on
space. The city council has restricted the space that an individual can occupy
to a mere four square metres. John Ward and Henry Rossiter are friends who
share living space. They are both employed, but find it hard to survive in the
crowded city where pedestrian traffic jams can last for days with no one being
able to move due to congestion. While hanging out in their cubicle, Ward
discovers a long forgotten room adjacent to their cubicle. They are triumphant
in this new space, thrilled, as they have never known so much space. They buy
a Victorian wardrobe for their new room, which is the only thing of beauty in
their girlfriend to share room with them in turn ask their families move in and
take advantage of the space. Ward, who had hated the greedy landlords, soon
becomes a landlord himself, with making money taking precedence over
enjoying their new room. In order to make more space, Ward and Rossiter
break up the beautiful wardrobe..
Analysis

Beautiful story construction: crush the protagonists, give them a

reprieve and then crush them again.
Their misery is compounded untilthey have a secret room all to
themselves: we breathe a sigh of relief for these gentlemen.
An average room (for us) invokes a sense of wonder for the reader as we
are shocked at its comparative enormousness.
Then their generosity puts them in the s fix they started off with. They
have become the greedy landlords they had despised so much.
There is a note of optimism at the end, but is it intended r ironically?
Then he pulled himself together. It was a beautiful wardrobe, without
doubt, but when it was gone it would make the room seem even larger.
Ballard may have seen this as frogs accustoming themselves to life in a
slowly cooking pot.
Its little wonder that Ballard was disliked by those who prefer the
triumph of human spirit.

Setting
It is set in the future where the world is becoming increasingly
overpopulated, with a world population of around 20 billion (The official

line was that world population had reached a plateau, leveling off
at 20000 million.)
Most of the worlds inhabitants live in crowded central cities in order to
preserve as much land as possible outside of them for farming (The
countryside, as such, no longer existed) and as a result the world does
not have a food problem, any wars- since all governments devote
themselves to addressing the problems caused by overpopulation.
In the city inhabited by the two protagonists, Ward and Rossiter, there is a
mass shortage of space and the people live in a small cellular room
Cubicles where they are charged by ceiling space, the legal maximum
decreasing to 3.5 square meters per person. The city streets are enormously
crowded, resulting in occasional pedestrian congestions that last days at a
time Two years earlier Ward had been caught in one pedestrian jam of over
20,000 people outside the stadium, for over forty-eight hours. A
claustrophobic feeling. Most old and historical buildings have been taken
down to make way for new battery homes or divided into hundreds of small
cubicles.
Characters;
John Ward main protagonist, middle aged, unmarried. He works as a
librarian and shares his living space with Henry Rossiter. He is passive
compared to Rossiter. Ward is more sensitive to beauty and is more
disturbed when the Victorian wardrobe is destroyed to make more space at
the end. He despises the greedy landlords who reduce the size of the
cubicles so that there is no space for him to walk without stumbling. But by
the end, he becomes a mean, penny pinching somebody who counts all of
the pennies, becomes fixated with all the money he has.
Henry Rossiter is very different from Ward, though they are close friends. He
is more aggressive in his approach and persuades Ward to let their
girlfriends into the spare room. His is a disastrous move as the girls bring in
their families too, little by little. Rossiter is not sensitive to beauty and
sacrifices the one thing that symbolizes beauty in their lives, the Victorian
wardrobe he sacrifices this wardrobe to make more space.
Language Technique
The Title
The story describes a situation far In the future when the population of the
world has grown to the extent there is no place for people to live normal
lives. The space that each person can occupy is regulated by the city
council. Billennium refers to the time far into the future when
overpopulation, and not war, is the threat the human race.
Writers effect

How does Ballard writers effect affect the reader?

Ballard uses third person narrative throughout. It is not written in the
first person I Very much third person limited it is focused in the main
character Ward.
Words are chosen to highlight the cramped cubicles in which people
live out their lives. Words that cause claustrophobic atmosphere
There is no privacy or comfort.
Describing Wards cubicle, the narrators says Partition pressed
against his knees and he could hardly move (this gives us an
idea of how small and tight the cubicle is).
Claustrophobic language: always full, endless clamor, jammed,
din, roar, bruising crush, neck-strain, its enormous, squeezed
out of existence, traffic had long since ceased to move,
packed, shuffling mob, wrestling past each other, huge crowd,
immovably jammed, narrow alcove, amplified dialogue,
booming, never empty, ran continuously, the noise must have
been unbearable, the ceaseless press of people jostling past
the window had reduced him to a state of exhaustion.
Quotes on Pages 184-185-185/186.
Irony; Its enormous, the perspectives really zoom
Manipulating the ceiling was a favorite trick of unscrupulous landlords
Quote:
As soon as he saw the advertisement describing the staircase cubicle he
had left (like everyone else he spent most of his spare time scanning the
classifieds n the newspapers, moving his lodgings an average of once every
two months) despite the higher rental. A cubicle on the staircase would
almost certainly be on its own.
Analysis :
John Ward lives in a city that teems with thirty million people with a million
being added ever year. He used to share a room with seven other people.
The lack of privacy and space used to reduce him to despair. Most people
were unhappy with their lodgings and ere constantly on the lookout for
better accommodation. This one that Ward chose seemed promising as he
did not have to share t with anyone, although it was tiny.
Two years earlier Ward had been caught in one outside the stadium, for
forty-eight hours was trapped in a gigantic pedestrian jam containing over
20,000 people, fed by crowds leaving the stadium on one side and those
approaching it from the other.
Pedestrian jams were one of the features of dystopian (of the future in a
society which is very different) and where the protagonist lived. The one in
which Ward was caught involved 20,000 people and it carried on for fortyeight hours, during which it was impossible to move at will, In spite of such

gigantic crowds present at the sports events, people still attended them to
get away from the tiny cubicles in which they lived.
Rossiter smiled. Thats the ultimate argument, isnt it? They used t
twenty-five years ago at the last revaluation when the minimum was cut
from five to four.
Rossiter is the protagonists close friend. Unlike John, he is a realist. He is
also sharp and matter of fact. Since he works for the government, he hears
bureaucratic rumors that the minimum space for a cubicle is going to be
slashed from four meters to a mere three and a half. Ward is not ready to
believe it as it would need too many adjustments to the existing cubicles,
which would have to be shortened by half a meter. But Rossiter reminds him
that such reductions have been enforced before and the council could do it
again.
Ward wiped his eyes, then stood up wearily and reached for the shelves.
Relax. Im on my way. Im going to live in a broom cupboard. Access to
staircase thats really rich. Tell me, Louie, is there life on Uranus?
Ward occupied a cubicle on a staircase that was a little over four metres. For
a while no one noticed, although Rossiter often remarked on the room being
spacious. One evening the manager drops in to say that the authorities have
specified that any cubicle that is larger than four and a half metres will now
be considered a double cubicle. If Ward wants to continue staying there, he
would have to pay more rent. The managers comment about access to the
staircase is ironic because the cubicle is off the staircase and it is really a
drawback because the sound of people trudging up and down is disturbing.
There are several instances of dark humor in the story. Tell me Louie, is
there life on Uranus? Is one of them? Life on Earth has become unlivable
and it is time to look at alternatives is Wards suggestion. He wonders
whether it is possible to live in Uranus. (Dark humor)-irony
For an hour they exchanged places, wandering silently around the dusty
room, stretching their arms to feel its emptiness grasping at the sensation of
absolute spatial freedom
Rossiter and Ward have moved into a double cubicle in a squalid building.
The disturbing news that Rossiter has brought from his office is that the
world population has grown by eight hundred million people in just one year.
This growth will necessitate further reduction in minimum specificationslikely to three meters. Ward is depressed at the thought and punches the
panel next to him to let out his anger and a small section breaks off and
hangs loose. Thinking he may have disturbed the people next door, he peers
into the opening and to his delight he finds that it is a room that had been
overlooked when the cubicles were made. Rossiter and Ward look over the
room , delighting in its largeness, The have never experience such a large
empty space before so they take turns to enjoy the freedom of stretching
their hands without hitting anything.

For an hour they exchanged places, wandering silently around the dusty
room, stretching their arms to feel its unconfined emptiness, grasping at
the sensation of absolute spatial freedom. The word wanders shows a
feeling opposite to what they have experienced before. Emptiness is a new
concept for them. Freedom is another new concept.
Then he pulled himself together. It was a beautiful wardrobe, without
doubt, but when it was gone it made the room seen even larger.Ward and
Rossiter buy furniture for the room that they have discovered, the choose
heavy Victorian furniture that no one wants as there is no space to fit it in
(ironic They are especially fond of a mahogany wardrobe that has carved
decorations. It symbolizes beauty in their lives, seething that has been
missing for so long. When Judith and Helen and later their families move in
the wardrobe loses its shine.

Irony:
Final sentence: It was a beautiful wardrobe, without doubt, but when it was
gone it would make the room seem even larger.
Only got six to our seven
How did we ever decide to buy it? They used to have the space before
they gave it up for money.Before they become the greedy landlords
The partition pressed against his knees and he could hardly move: back to
where they started.
Symbolism
Wardrobe; it stands for beauty and for freedom. The destruction of
the wardrobe symbolizes their loss of freedom and the slow
destruction of the world.
Cubicles: lack of freedom and lack of power, lack of space.
Number of people: Huge number of people.
Is Ballard warning his readers about what may come?
Themes : Overpopulation,Lack of social responsibility, loss or
privacy, power, Destruction of beauty.

Essay questions
In what Ways does Ballard strikingly portray overpopulation
in the Story?

Explore

the ways in which Ballard shows the importance

of space in Billenium
Explore the ways in which Ballard explains the importance
of privacy in Billenium.
How does Ballard make this such a striking opening to
Billennium.?(claustrophobic language)
How does Ballard vividly convey what t is like for
someone to live in an overpopulated society?