At Swim-Two-Birds portrays the power of literature. The student is the novel’s protagonist, a man deeply involved in the literary world. Not only is he studying Irish literature at a university, but he’s also writing his own novel, and he spends many long hours debating literature with his friends in bars. To the student, literature is a powerful force around which his entire existence pivots. He values literature over everything else, even when he’s expressing his love for literature by lying in bed all day to read, much to his uncle’s annoyance. At university, in the pub, in his room, and everywhere else he goes, the student thinks and talks about literature. His life has no more powerful force, and given that the student is the protagonist of the novel and the creator of most other characters, he transfers this force into the narrative itself.

Literature’s power asserts itself throughout the novel. The student pens a novel in which authors have the power to grant life to people and then continue to have power over their creations. In this regard, the authors of even cheap literature—like Trellis and his Western pulp novels—are essentially gods.