This discussion makes me think of the Nerdsync video on Scooby-Doo. because it gives us the language tools to better frame this uncertainty.
The video discusses the differences between Scooby-Doo shows using a book about Genre from 1975 called "The Fantastic"
Specifically the book defines a concept it calls the Fantastic, the uncertainty of a narrative before we know if something exists in a grounded reality or a supernatural fantasy.
Todorov's starts with definitions of two genres,
the "Uncanny"
> In works that belong to this genre, events are related which may be accounted for by the laws of reason, but which are, in one way or another, incredible, extraordinary, shocking, singular, disturbing or unexpected. [...] If [the reader] decides that the laws of reality remain intact and permit an explanation of the phenomena described, we say that the world belongs to the uncanny.
and the "Marvelous"
> [These stories] end with an acceptance of the supernatural. [...] the very fact that it remains unexplained, unrationalized, suggests the existence of the supernatural.]
We still don't know where Lodge 49 falls. "Either the devil is an illusion, an imaginary being; or else he really exists, precisely like other living beings."
Personally, I am happy to wait in the realm of the Fantastic and let the narrative unfold before making my choice. And if the narrative is never completed, I reside there forever. Me and Dud, floating in a pool we don't own for eternity because our dad (Jim Gavin) disappeared without finishing the story.