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A guy and a girl was discussing books. The girl does not read many books except for some picture books. She mentioned 桃太郎 and said there are many parts she does not understand. After discussing this book, the guy thought:

それにしても「桃太郎」を挙げるとは。あの芥川龍之介も弄りたくなった題材...彼女...やはり恐るべし。

I am not sure how to understand 弄りたくなった. あの芥川龍之介も弄りたくなった題材 means a story that even Akutagawa wants to read.

naruto
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John Davies
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    Assuming this is from a manga, ignoring line breaks altogether and replacing line breaks with commas both can cause confusion. If you don't know how to break lines, please read [this](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/138776/719822). – naruto Dec 26 '22 at 03:47

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弄る is not "to read" but "to tweak", "to make changes", "to play with". 桃太郎 is one of the best-known Japanese fairy tales, but there is Akutagawa's "reimagined" version of 桃太郎, whose story is very different from the original.

それにしても「桃太郎」を挙げるとは。
So/Anyway, mentioning Momotarō!

あの芥川龍之介も弄りたくなった題材...
(Momotarō) is a theme even Ryunosuke Akutagawa wanted to play with...

naruto
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