Analysis of “Billenium” by J. G. Ballard

First appeared in New Worlds. Reprinted a dozen and a half times (some major retrospectives) by Amabel Williams-Ellis, Mably Owen, Edmund Crispin, Damon Knight, Edmund Crispin, Richard Curtis, Rob Sauer, Robert Silverberg, Martin H. Greenberg, John W. Milstead, Joseph D. Olander, Patricia S. Warrick, Bernard C. Hollister, Ralph S. Clem, Sheila Schwartz, V. S. Muravyev, Malcolm Edwards, Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Tom Shippey, Edel Brosnan, and John Joseph Adams.


Rather ingeniously if dismally plotted.  In a world overpopulated--well over 20 billion--a pair of friends luckily live in a 4.5 square meter cubicle, if understairs. Minimum is four.  However, they hear it will soon be 3.5.  They debate this but the trump argument was that people could not live in four.  Soon they and girlfriends lose apartments.  The boys move into a broom closet.  At this nadir, they discover an unoccupied room of fifteen square meters!  Soon they invite the girls to live with them, who in turn invite family, etc. until...

Beautiful story construction:  crush protagonists, reprieve, and crush again.  Misery compounded until... they have a secret room all to their own, we breathe a sigh of relief for these gentlemen.  An average room invokes a sense of wonder for the reader as we boggle at its comparative enormousness.  Then their generosity puts them in the same fix they started off with.  There's a note of optimism at the end, but is it intended ironically?  I suspect so.  Ballard may have seen this as frogs accustoming themselves to life in a slowly cooking pot.  It's little wonder that Ballard was disliked by those who prefer the triumph of human spirit.

Auspicious Eggs by James Morrow

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition (originally from Fantasy and Science Fiction)

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)  

Father Cornelius Dennis Monaghan witnesses an odd baptism:  The priest baptizes a twin who is to be killed because she is not fertile.  The mother runs away with her the remaining twin.

You know you're in a strange alternate theocratic universe.  Not only is infertility worthy of death, but also prayer staves off a global-warming flood.  Nothing is more important than procreation and only procreation.  If you can't procreate, you will be baptized until dead.  Father Cornelius  regrets his actions and tries to escape the theocracy.  Fate has a surprise.

This isn't an extrapolated society if unchecked, but 

The Perfect Match by Ken Liu (from Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition)

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,  

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)  

Sai relies on Tilly, an electronic aid that keeps track of his interests in order to help and recommend various products.  Jenny, his neighbor, sows seeds of doubt that allowing corporations access to his interests may be detrimental.  Sai starts to notice that with Tilly comes a lack of surprise and challenging thought.  Jenny has a plot to destroy Tilly.

(I can't help but wish I could own at least part of a Tilly.  This may function as a Valentine's story.)  

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,  

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)  

Cull by Robert Reed (from Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition)

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,  

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)  

On a spaceship  erratic behavior--no matter how small--cannot be tolerated.  Orlando, a boy genius, has hit his sister, just one in a series of crimes.  The father makes excuses, the mother asks for drugs, but drugs dampen performance on a spaceship.  A robot doctor has to decide the boy's fate.  The boy is ready to be culled.  The robot gives the genius boy hope that he has a different destination, a new living world with secret homes on asteroids.

This feels like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" made logical and necessary if not attempting Jackson's verisimilitude.

Personal Jesus by Jennifer Pelland (from Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition)

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,  

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)  

"Personal Jesus" is an electronic watchdog that everyone must wear, advising proper religious behavior and applying electrical shocks when wearers misbehave.  A vignette written as a promotional pamphlet.

Red Card by S. L. Gilbow (from Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition)

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,  

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.)  

"Red Card" originally appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Anyone can shoot one person in Gilbow's society, so Linda Jackson shoots Larry, her husband.  The town approves.  She reports her act, turns in the Red Card that allowed her to carry out the act.  Now that she's turned in her card, though, people don't have to like her.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (from Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition)

From Brave New Worlds, 2nd edition,  

edited by John Joseph Adams

(Note:  This anthology originally appeared a few years ago but has been re-released with new stories as the first edition didn't get publicized well enough.) 

"The Lottery" originally appeared in the New Yorker

Shirley Jackson paints a small town's seemingly charming habits with well-worn customs and mannerisms toward one another, and then she turns the town on its head--at least for the reader.  Undoubtedly, this captured the seemingly random hate of a small town in Jackson's time--the town's willingness to destroy its citizens, no matter how well the citizens knew one another.  While the story may seem more quaint as small towns disappeared, the internet has become its own map of small towns, some of whose citizens sometimes go around stoning.  However unfortunate, this story may never date as long humans exist.