If I were a little less tired, I probably would have noted in my previous missive that the essay whose interpretation I reported on (Severian as beneficiary of tweaks to the past) was, to the best of my memory, published before "The Citadel of the Autarch," where Severian himself gives a modified version of it in Chapter 38. Even if it wasn't, I remember it as a remarkably good essay, though unlike Severian, my memory isn't perfect...
I'd love to see that essay again.
-vizcacha
(david_lebling at avid.com)
ps: [Plug] Our very own mantis has an article in the current New York Review of SF on the "future history" of Jack Vance. Those who are fans of TBOTNS but have not yet read Vance (particularly The Dying Earth and its sequels, and The Dragon Masters and its) should do so without unseemly delay! He manages to tie the "Demon Princes" books into the same history as The Dying Earth, a feat of mantic virtuosity.