JOI's wraith is real (and object-capable, with a possible Lyle division of labor)
Where readers stand
majority
majority (literal-wraith), hallucination minority; the DFW-as-metafictional-wraith reading is allowed as metaphor and firmly walled off from biography by the community itself.
In plain terms: JOI's ghost (his "wraith") is literally real inside the novel's world, can move small objects, and may share the work with a second wraith (Lyle).
Where the text lands: the literal-wraith reading is the best-supported one; the "it's just Gately's fever" reading is a stretch; and the question looks built to be unanswerable. Among readers: the literal reading is dominant; hallucination is a minority.
The wraith's definitional passages (pp. 128, 829, 831), Gately's ICU stillness as the condition for contact, and the second, fitter wraith (p. 933) carry it; a draft witness reports the early manuscript hardened these hints into a more literal ghost. The object-moving and Lyle-second-wraith sub-claims stay open. See Ghosts and Wraiths.
The question
This reading answers the crux is the wraith real (vs. Gately's fever).
The ruling
Weighed in the adversarial ledger Is the Wraith Real?.
The evidence
the wraith definitional passages (pp. 128, 829, 831); Gately's ICU immobility as the interface condition; the second "way more physically fit" wraith (p. 933)
the MS's literal "Wraithster" (Moore) — hardening the published hints (IJ 943)
Scenes in evidence
- Scene 001: hal admissions interview
- Scene 039: lyle weight room guru
- Scene 122: eta supper stice hal
- Scene 162: gately wraith figurants
- Scene 167: stice stuck to window
- Scene 168: fully functional phil
- Scene 169: gately dream md temptation
- Scene 170: hal horizontal vr5
- Scene 175: fackelmann scam wraith returns