Tightrope walking satirical or acidic contexts. Nicholas Taleb uses the phrase in his book "The Black Swan". "You get respect for doing funambulism or spectator sports". Taleb is criticising scientists who prefer popularism to vigorous research and those who walk a fixed and narrow path rather than explore a large field of empirical study. Tightrope walking Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope walking and slacklining. Acrobats maintain their
A Letter to a Young Poet addressed to Lehmann, her critique was addressed to a number of young poets of the day, including her nephew, Julian Bell, Stephen Spender, Cecil Day Lewis and W.H. Auden. Lehman felt her understanding of poetry was inadequate, and later parted company with the Woolfs. Her quoted examples have been criticised as not amongst the cited poet's best, a criticism she later accepted. A Letter to a Young Poet A Letter to a Young Poet was an epistolary letter by Virginia Woolf, written in 1932 to John Lehman, laying out her views on modern poetry. In 1932, Woolf responded to a