Marquesas Islands - in Western Culture

In Western Culture

• In the Gilligan's Island episode "X Marks the Spot" the Professor gives coordinates for the castaway's imaginary island that would put it in the outer fringes of the Marquesas group.
• Famous French painter Paul Gauguin and Belgian singer Jacques Brel spent the last years of their lives in the Marquesas, and are buried there. Brel composed a famous song, Les Marquises, about the Marquesas Islands, his last home.
• The Marquesas provided inspiration to American novelist Herman Melville, whose experiences in the Marquesas formed the basis for his novel Typee. (Despite some sources, Omoo is based in the Society Islands, not in the Marquesas.)
• Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Marquesas in 1888, and wrote about his experiences and impressions there in 1900, in a book called In the South Seas.
• Frederick O'Brien wrote a 1919 book White Shadows in the South Seas based on his experiences in the Marquesas. This book was also adapted into an MGM film of 1928
• Thor Heyerdahl wrote his book Fatu Hiva during a year-long stay on the island.
• The island group is also mentioned in passing in the Crosby, Stills & Nash song, "Southern Cross".
• The Marquesas Islands temporarily received an international spotlight in the United States when the reality TV show Survivor: Marquesas was filmed on Nuku Hiva. It was the fourth installment of the TV series Survivor.
• In the book In the Heart of the Sea, it is detailed that the Marquesas were near where the Essex had been destroyed. They feared reports of cannibalism, war and ritualized homosexuality on the island, however, and instead chose a much longer route to South America, resulting in the deaths of the majority of the crew.
• The Marquesas Islands are featured extensively, as a major setting in the book series, The Virtual War. The islands are referred to as "The Isles of Hiva", and are supposedly the only uncontaminated lands left after a nuclear apocalypse. Most of the second novel takes place on Nuku Hiva, and part of the last novel takes place on Hiva Oa. Cannibalism is also a major element, and a character feels that he is in tune with Nuku Hiva's "Spirits"
• The name of a Wisconsin city called "MARKESAN" got its influence from the Marquesas Islands. The city had been formally known as Granville from 1849-1854. The city had to change its name due to complications with the U.S. Postal Service. The name Markesan was submitted by a citizen who said the newly discovered Marquesas Islands influenced the name.