What does the sixpence = ?

[Bergil]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Does it matter what the sixpence is? It's lost anyway.

And is it not rather sensible to search in the light, with a good chance of finding something else equally as valuable if not more so, than to search in the dark with little hope of finding anything?

And, finally, is it not just as reprehensible for Shippey to sneer at those who adhere to modernism as it is for the critics to sneer at Tolkien's use of fantasy?

The man with the pan clearly doesn't get it. Shhippey means (and I agree) that iff you're looking for a twonie you dropped in a completely different place then you dropped it because the light's better there, you let circumstances decide your actions, and pull you away from what you want to be doing (or what you're good at doing). In other words, if you go out and buy whatever CD is being advratised, you're "looking in the light", but that CD is most likely no good, so if you want to find some good music, you'll have to "look in the dark". Shippey is saying that those who apply modernism just because it's the latest thing are idiots, and saying Tolkien didn't write what he thought people wanted to read, he wrote what he wanted to write (I agree with both).