James Graham Ballard was an English novelist born in 1930 in Shanghai, China who died in 2009 in London. Some of his well-known novels include The Burning World, The Crystal World, and The Drowned World. The story Billenium is set in a future where overpopulation has led to a lack of living space, with hundreds crammed into small rooms and buildings not intended for housing being used to house thousands. The story follows Ward, a librarian who shares a room with his friend Rossiter, but they begin allowing others to move in, infringing on Ward's privacy and personal space until the room is overcrowded. The themes include overpopulation, loss of privacy and power, and the destruction of beauty

1. Billenium
Catalina Viola and Lola
Louro

2. James Graham Ballard
Born on November 15, 1930 in Shangai,
China and he died on April 19, 2009 in
London, England. James was an english
novelist, short story writer and essayist.
Some of his well known novels are “The
burning world”, “The crystal world” and “The
drowned world”

3. Description of the characters
Ward: He was an unmarried guy who lived in a cubicle of more than four and a half
square metres in floor area. He was a friendly, middle-aged guy. He worked as a
librarian, he’s the protagonist of the story. At the end of the story he becomes a
landlords, which at the end of the story he hate.
Rossiter: He was Ward’s closest friend. He was more self-interested than Ward. He
was the one who urged Ward to let the girls move in, who then brought their family
members in.
Judith, Helen and their family: Rossiter urged Ward to let the girls move in, who
then brought members of their family into the room, so finally they ended being
many people in one room. And that’s what Ward didn’t want.

4. Themes
Overpopulation/Lack of responsibility: The story has a message about what happens
when people are not “controlled”, in which case as a result there is overpopulation.
“Over a hundred people lived in the top three floors of the old rooming house…” “...
for over forty-eight hours was trapped in a gigantic pedestrian jam containing over
20,000 people”

5. Power and loss of privacy: When Ward and Rossiter found the room they become
powerful because they have more space than in the cubicles. But when they start
letting people live in their room, they started losing their privacy.
“Directly in front of them, fainty illuminated by a frimy skylight, was a medium-sized
room some fifteen square, empty except for the dust silted up against the skirting
boards”
Destraction of beauty: The story shows how beauty is lost because of
overpopulation. Important places like cathedrals, churches, townhalls are destroyed
because they are used for people to live there. When they entered to the room,
there was a Victoria Wardrobe in the middle. This made the room smaller than what
it seem. But there weren’t enough space for so much furniture so it was destroyed.
“ It had been a beautiful piece of furniture, in a way simbolising this whole private
world”

6. Tone
Pessimistic: Because we can see when we read the story that the characters don’t
have any type of hope for the future, because they know that the situation is not
going to change. The characters mantain a passive role all along the story.
“Rossiter paused, lowering his voice. `Four per cent. Eight hundred million extra
people in one year- just less than half the earth’s total population in 1950’”

7. Relevance of the title
The story describes a situation in the future when the population of the world has
grown so much that there is no space for people to live or have a normal life. The
space that each person can have is regulated by the city council.
“Billenium” make reference to a time in the future where overpopulation will be the
biggest problem to human race.

8. Symbolism
The wardrobe: The wardrobe was a beautiful piece of furniture. It was a Victorian
wardrobe from the past, it let Ward and Rossiter appreciate and old piece of
furniture they won’t see it nowadays. It also symbolised beauty because it gave
beauty to the room. And also freedom because they had enough space they wanted
to put as much furniture as they wanted. And they want to appreciate the space they
had because before they didn’t have any furniture because they lived in a cubicle.
“The furniture was heavy and Victorian; the cheapest available, its size emphasised
the emptiness of the room”

9. The cubicle: It symbolises that it wasn’t a room, it was a little square where there
wasn’t enough space. It also represents lack of space, lack of privacy and lack of
power.
“A square on a staircase would almost certainly be on its own”
“The cubicle was slightly more than four and a half square metres in floor area, half
a square metre over the statutory maximum for a single person”