"Greene, Carlton" <CGreene2 at hunton.com> asks:
<<Sev says of Juturna: "She saved me once when
I was a boy" and then to her "Do you remember that?" Juturna replies "No. It hasn't yet occurred. It will, because you spoke.">>
I've always assumed that this means that Juturna will now swim through time and then Gyoll to assure that Severian is saved. That is, it is the Juturna of the present of Urth of the New Sun who goes back and saves him from drowning in
Shadow of the Torturer. I concede that the living-backwards explanation is possible as well, though to be honest, I think that Ossipago et al. live backwards only in the sense that Severian's earlier (in his life) meetings of them are with later (in their life) versions of themselves. No one ever bothers to be clear in the books, using metaphors like the Brook Madregot when time-travel is meant. So, "living backwards" is just a metaphoric way of explaining their peculiar interactions with Severian, who is, after all, a barbarian.
William Ansley writes:
<<This invites you to analyze the text in a way that
more ordinary books don't, but it tends to lead to the conclusion that every mystery Wolfe sets has a solution.>>
I refer you to the motto/colophon of the Urth Archive web site. It is Wolfe speaking through the mouth of Agia...
-- Dave Lebling
(aka vizcacha)