Normally, Kinbote simply makes things up and treats them as unquestionably true (Zembla, the draft variants that he only admits to fabricating in the Index, etc.), but here he clearly marks what he’s making up (it’s even in the form of a play, which draws attention to its artificiality). The dynamic of John and Sybil upsetting Hazel by not taking her paranormal encounters seriously seems plausible (that happened with the poltergeist incident, too), and it’s possible that Kinbote is able to depict Hazel’s reality plausibly because (as he has previously said) he identifies with her. He’s a narcissist, but he can at least empathize with people in similar positions. However, the notion that life is “hopeless” and the afterlife is “heartless” seems purely Kinbote, as Shade would never say that about life, and Hazel would be unlikely to say that about the afterlife. The idea of the dead living in electric lights seems just strange enough for Shade to be interested in it—particularly alongside the image of light drawing moths. Shade sees the dead as an unidentifiable presence that affects the living, so the metaphor of moths to a flame seems apt. Kinbote’s contribution about the world vanishing if electricity disappeared seems to underscore Shade’s sense that life and death are inextricably intertwined (one would vanish without the other), and that the dead are an essential (if difficult to perceive) presence on earth.