Ex-Nobel Prize winner says 2012 Nobel Prize winner in literature is a 'catastrophe.'

Herta Mueller isn't a fan of censorship. She isn't a fan of the Nobel Prize committee's preferences in literature lately either.

Mueller won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. While not broadly read in the United States, Mueller wrote under the gaze of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorial leadership in Romania. To say she doesn't take kindly to oppressive governments that smother free expression is putting it mildly.

So when the Nobel Prize committee selected Chinese writer Mo Yan as the 2012 winner, Mueller wasn't thrilled. Yan has been criticized for being a member of the Chinese government's Communist Party, and vice president of the official writers association in the country.

"It's a catastrophe," Mueller told the Swedish Daily Dagens Nyheter in an interview. Not only was the selection of Mo Yan "incredibly upsetting," Mueller said she almost cried when she heard the news. "[Yan] celebrates the censors," she said.

'Catastrophe' might be a bit strong, admittedly, but we're dealing with writers here. Hyperbole is a crutch. You can't go out to dinner with a writer and not have the food described as the most vile gruel skimmed from the surface of a sewer grate...or the delicate kiss of carbohydrates touched from an angel's wing. Yan got off easy with catastrophe.