The grave-dig "concluding dream" — described by the editor as "digging w/Joelle in grave"…

This one was stable by design: a change was proposed, but the material survived unchanged, which is itself evidence.

In the manuscript. The dream sits at ms 1520 of 1603, and Pietsch asks: "1520 make concluding dream--digging w/Joelle in grave--more explicit?" Michael Pietsch's December 1994 second-read letter

In the published book. Scene 175 (dream at p. 934)

Evidence. Independently corroborated. (letter + print text).

Bears on. This difference bears on the following open questions: the dig's reality, its yield, and what is (was) in JOI's head; what happens between p. 981 and p. 3 (the Annulation-Text); does Gately survive the hospital / what the beach scene is.

Further notes. Independent third-party attestation that Joelle is IN the MS-1994 dream — and a clean position match: ms 1520/1603 ≈ print 934/981. Evidentially parallel to diff-ending-stable: the joi-head evidence base was pressure-tested by the editor and kept oblique on purpose.