Nature is a Language

"Nature is a language can't you read?"
The implied obviousness of this question is ironic and perhaps totally unintended. Morrissey tackled the apparent naturalness of nature in a number of The Smiths songs: "if the day came when I feel a natural emotion, I'd get such a shock I'd probably jump in the ocean..", " I could have been wise and I could have been free but nature played this trick on me.", "Will nature make a man of me yet?"," Love is natural and real but not for such as you and I my love." etc. The lyrics indicate a character who is somehow outside nature, someone for whom nature doesn't work with. In the song "Ask" Morrissey's Nature, the shy and coy one, is unable to socially communicate his intentions and hopes the other one will ask him to participate in something natural. The lyrics to " Girl Afraid", "Stretch Out and Wait," "Seasick yet still Docked" all portray a struggle with a desire to join in the impulses of the natural world, but this crippling barrier of not only shyness but an uncertainty of social cues and desires prevents him of making a move. The line "Nature is a Language" can suggest a deconstructed and debilitating uncertainty in the natural/social world. Derrida, Paul de Man, and Barbara Johnson all point out the undecidable nature of language usage. If Nature is a language then the same undecidable characteristics plague it as well, the signs perhaps don't signify what is intended or anything certain at all.