Caribbean Style [antikvár]

V, I'At first thought the very phrase "Caribbean style" seems a contradiction in terms. How can a single style emerge out of a scattered heterogeneous archipelago, spread over hundreds of miles of sea, vrithout a common language, culture, history or even geology?Some of the Caribbean islands are spiky and volcanic, some are coral, low-ljdng in the ocean. Some are open to the wild Atlantic, some bask sheltered in the lee. They have been variously ruled by the French, the Spaniards, the English, the Dutch, the Danes and the Americans, and some indeed have been passed so repeatedly from sovereignly to sovereignly that they are a positive mish-mash of influences and memories; while the great black majority of the populace, descended from African slaves, have acquired over the generations a myriad ethnic strains and symptoms, from the high cheekbones of the original Carib Indians to the commanding postures of European aristocrats.A Caribbean slyle! It seems at first thought about as definable as the human condition itself.Yet when I consider the matter deeper, I perceive several sub-styles, so to speak, which can be ascribed to the Caribbean region as a whole: and the first is the Slyle of Climate.Most of us, I suppose, when we think of those tropic seas, think first of climate: sunshine to warm the waters and illuminate the beaches, trade winds to rustle the statutory palms, humid warmth to encourage the coconuts, the sugarcane, and the paw-paw. But actually the Caribbean climate is more than just a divine convenience, or even a builder of character. It is, more than any other cU-mate I know, an aesthetic in its own right, an abstraction of immense sensual power, as full of emotional suggestion and allusion as a work of art.Its ma^ificent storms, whipping the tall palms and drenching the rough grass lawns, are exactly like the sudden volatile passions of a hot human temper, and the warm calm that invariably follows them, making the wet foliage steam, almost purr with luxurious relief, is like a figure of forgiveness and reconciliation. As for the high blue skies, some-