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あんまり恋愛方向に持って行きたくない

So, context: an author's reply to someone asking whether a character of his would have a romance or not. Said character had a few hints of a possible romantic interest in someone and did end up getting married to them in the epilogue of the work, but never had an outright romance with them. This reply was from a Q&A with the author that took place a few years before said epilogue.

I'm not sure, taking context and hindsight into consideration, whether the anmari here is affecting "恋愛方向" or "たくない".

I mean, I feel like it should mean "don't want to take [this character] towards much romance" rather than "don't really want to take [this character] in the direction of romance", since the former statement is contradictory in hindsight. But I don't know if that's grammatically correct.

Of course, I could be overlooking the implications of the word '方向'. If the correct translation is "don't really want to take this character in the direction of romance" with the implication that "direction of romance" means a focus on romance, then it makes sense. Since, like I mentioned in the context paragraph, there were only a few hints of romantic intentions and it only got outright stated in the epilogue, when they were already married. Thus, the character never really went 'in the direction of romance'. Plus the author themselves has stated how they don't feel there's any "romance" in their work, despite hints and married characters in the epilogue.

Apologies if I've rambled. Some clarity and advice on how to correctly translate this would be greatly appreciated.

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The ～方向に持って行く　is metaphorizing something which can be taken in the direction of romance. In this case it's either "the two's relationship" or "the novel in general".

この場合は「笑い話」ということなので「会話」を物にたとえて「持って行く」と表現しています http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1049626510

The あんまり　effects the 持って行きたくない, ie. the author doesn't really want to take the book in that direction. あんまり　is an adverb, and so it's going to modify a verb. The only verb here is 持って行く.

I think [if] it was going to be "the author doesn't want to excessively take the book in the romance direction", it would be "あんまり恋愛方向に持って行くのはしたくない”.

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  • Ahhh, of course, I forgot it was an adverb! facepalms Ahh, but what you said made so much sense! To be frank, this quote was never published anywhere, only repeated by people who were there at the time, so it makes sense for it to be grammatically incorrect. Although the repeaters of said quote were native speakers so...maybe the author spoke in a slang-sort of way and they simply repeated it verbatim?
    – user7541
    Nov 15, 2014 at 4:58
  • Hmm? The quote is grammatically correct; I never said it wasn't. The sentence I gave was just what it ought to be if he was going to mean "doesn't want to excessively...". The current meaning is "the author doesn't really want to take (the characters' relationship/the book) in a romantic direction".
    – Rimilel
    Nov 15, 2014 at 7:34
  • Ohh, and here I misunderstood you. Since you said "I think it was going to be" (you skipped out on the 'if') I thought you were correcting the quote. In this case, since the correct translation is "don't really want to take this character in the direction of romance" can I ask your opinion on whether it would be reasonable to assume that "direction of romance" means a focus on romance? I'm trying to make sense of this in context and hindsight, you see. Or should I leave that to another question?
    – user7541
    Nov 15, 2014 at 11:20
  • Also, something I'm confused about. Since the only verb's motteiku, and it's attached to the negative auxillary adjective which is takunai, then wouldn't it be "Does not want to go in the direction of romance much" rather than "doesn't really want to go in the direction of romance"? Since the adverb is directed towards 'going' rather than 'wanting'?
    – user7541
    Nov 15, 2014 at 11:47
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    It doesn't reject the possibility entirely unless the author shut out the possibility already and is now merely explaining why he did so. The phrase really is exactly like the the english equivalent: "I don't really want to take this character in the direction of romance", which doesn't explicitly say anything about whether he'll actually do it or not, just that he doesn't really want to.
    – Rimilel
    Nov 17, 2014 at 9:19

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