Figure A. Where the y and x axis
represent y-duration and x-duration and r the probability
factor, the V quantity represents a minimal threshold of credibility; hence the
equation V=(r/x)c2 will yield a value for the tangent of
angle c (a spatial determinant corresponding to page number); it should
be easily grasped that thus the hypotenuse S represents base contingency
required to make the reader swallow plot device n.
Figure B. Where the unlikely event represented by r is also egregiously convenient for the author, the necessary addition of value ¥ prevents a meaningful solution for c. Adding the parameter ¥ to the equation as a fourth variable yields V/¥ = (r/X) c2, which makes c the imaginary number i23. This projects the initial cone out of three-dimensional space and into four dimensions and consequent awareness of the author's convenience will vault the reader completely out of the world of the novel, and into the world in which the reader and author co-exist. The result is ß, a.k.a.: “Tell it to the Marines.”
illustrations by cricket coleman