summon

Hi all,

Could you explain me the meaning of 'summoning the town's purpose into being' in the following sentence:

Sir Frank Swettenham, British resident at that time, responded by ordering the use of brick and tile in the construction of buildings, thus summoning the town’s purpose into being.

Thanks

What sort of thing was done in the town? That would be its purpose. Did it manufacture bricks or mortar?

We call this sort of information 'context' and we always require Context and Background becuase it helps us give accurate answers. 👁 Wink ;)


Also: You should name the source of every quotation. Where did you see this?

Sorry for giving no context.

The town refers to Brickfields, a town near Kuala Lumpur where bricks were manufactured after a huge fire and flood swept the city of Kuala Lumpur.
The sentence comes from the website of Malaysia Tourism :

Sir Frank Swettenham, British resident at that time, responded by ordering the use of brick and tile in the construction of buildings, thus summoning the town’s purpose into being.

Does it mereley mean 'giving the town its purpose' ?

That is close, but I think that 'summoning' means a little more than that. When Sir Swettenham ordered the bricks, he caused the brick manufacturing industry to come into existence. That industry was the town's purpose.

Summoning something into existence is like magic, like what witches do. Clearly, that is not what is meant here, but there is an underlying suggestion that his words themselves created the industry.

Thanks for the explanation!