I keep thinking about Chee's prelude, and while there is obviously much more to learn about what happened, I was really struck by the origins of the conflict with Teleghen.
It's so interesting to me that Teleghen wasn't (at first glance) monstrously evil like I kind of expected. The artesans seem largely content, working hard for a giant corporation to be sure, but not ridiculously exploited.
However, I think it so telling that when their employees start pushing back against the system, even in a very small way, the benign facade starts dropping. Honestly, "pushing back" is too strong of a term; really it was just exerting agency in any way. Chee (and Hannah and Ikat before her) were trying to do something something small, that would have been a net positive for everyone.
And for, as far as we know, no other reason than it wasn't fully in pursuit of profit and and Teleghen wants to clamp down on employee agency (and "you don't leave while you are still profitable," but Chee wasn't even suggesting she leave), they respond to this tiny proposed change with a decisiveness and harshness that eventually made violent revolt the only way forward.
This feels very telling and relevant to our world. There are absolutely corporations and systems dealing in monstrous, obvious evil. But often it looks like Teleghen. If you never even give the illusion of "stepping out of line," you can often go with the flow and not encounter the ugly, violent underbelly of a system. But even one toe outside of expected boundaries, even or especially when you are trying to make positive change, can lay bare the violence and coercion at the heart of a system.
I think sci-fi often tends towards demonstrating uprising against the obvious evil which is important and does exist, but it is refreshing and applicable that they are choosing to tell a story that at least in part deals with exposing this kind of ordinary, mundane evil.
