the post-1993 stratum (YoG opening, mold scene, Marathe/Steeply, AFR superstructure) — *new canonical slug for claims previously filed ad hoc*

This asks which major parts of the novel — the Year-of-Glad opening, the mold-eating scene, the whole Marathe/Steeply and separatist superstructure — were added after 1993 rather than present from the start. What hangs on it is how much of the book we treat as core versus late scaffolding, and whether a passage's latecomer status should change how it is read.