Some works off iction – a portrait, say, or a roman à clef such as Point Counter Point – may be said fairly straightforwardly to refer, that is, to make assertions, suggestions, criticisms and so on in respect ofmore or less specified items existing in the world outside themselves. This, says a painting by Goya, is (among other things) what the real-life Duchess of Alba looks or looked like. Huxley's character Rampion is to be understood, in part, as referring to significant features of the real-life D.H. Lawrence; his character Webley, in part, to significant features of the real-life Oswald Mosley; and so on. And this map-like correspondence persists whatever precise metaphysical status we ascribe to the so-called "outside" or "real" world. Perhaps, as idealists, structuralists, Sapir-Whorfians, social constructivists and others allege, the so-called "real" world is itselfa fiction (or "construct"). So be it, if so; but all that matters here is to recognize that, whatever it is, it remains generically distinct from the world created, sustained and inhabited by selfconscious works off iction (and those who use them).